After another long break, the Caps returned to action on Wednesday by hosting the rebuilding New York Rangers. A surprisingly uneven performance from the home team gave the Rangers every opportunity to stay in the game, turning what should have been two easy points into an overtime nail-biter.
The Rangers scored first, with Mika Zibanejad cleaning up a tasty rebound from Neal Pionk. The Caps responded with John Carlson’s monster slapshot during a power play, tying the score after twenty minutes. The second period was a bit sloppy, but Ovechkin opened up scoring with an Ovi Shot from the Spot. Jim Vesey got a lucky bounce off Devante Smith-Pelly to score a power-play goal of his own, which I guess was infuriating to Ovechkin, so he got another one before the period was up. Chris Kreider restored the tie with a tip-in in the third, which pushed us out of rego and into overtime, where Matt Niskanen cleaned up a rebound to end it.
Caps win 4-3 in overtime!
John Carlson's third goal of the season ties the Caps and Rangers up 1-1 pic.twitter.com/mksQ9LNuT0
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) October 17, 2018
#ALLCAPS Alex Ovechkin picks up his 24th career goal vs. #NYR Lunqvist. It's Ovechkin's highest goal-scoring total vs. any opposing goalie (Marc-Andre Fleury 23x) @CapitalsRadio
— Ben Raby (@BenRaby31) October 18, 2018
wait a hecking minute. when did bountiful cumberbund start coaching for the rangers? the dude really is everywhere huh pic.twitter.com/TN4mp4lQKu
— b. (@youripides) October 18, 2018
No Joe B suit of the night, but I did make this photoshop so I could see what Borpik would look like without a nose, what do you think, I’m sorry, I’ll delete it
I think I saw some underlying improvements, but goof-ups and bad breaks obscured whatever progress was made since the weekend. This was not the statement game I was hoping for, but I appreciate the big finish.
The Caps have a day off before their last home game of the month. After the Panthers on Friday, a road trip to the far reaches of Canada and the drudgery that is late-night games follows.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Rangers
Headline photo: Patrick McDermott
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