WASHINGTON — Brandon Dubinsky snapped a wrist shot past Jose Theodore with 8:17 remaining just moments after he came on the ice for a shift change, giving the New York Rangers a surprising 4-3 win over the Washington Capitals in Game One of their best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal series on Wednesday night.
Game Two will be played Saturday afternoon at Verizon Center.
Rangers defenseman Mark Staal blocked a Mike Green shot just as Markus Naslund emerged from the penalty box on what turned out to be the deciding play. Staal sent an outlet pass to Naslund, who fed a streaking Dubinsky down the left side.
Hendrik Lundqvist stood strong in net for the Rangers, stopping 32 shots, including 13 from Alexander Ovechkin, who played an astonishing 26:07 of ice time.
The Capitals totally dominated the Rangers in the opening period, outshooting the visitors 14-4 but failing to tally.
Tomas Fleischmann tipped an Ovechkin shot past Lundqvist at 6:40 of the second period to open the scoring, but Scott Gomez, Naslund and Nik Antropov quickly replied for the New Yorkers.
Viktor Kozlov and Alexander Semin evened the score at 3-3, before Dubinsky’s late-game heroics. Ovechkin was limited to three shots in the final period.
“There really is no excuse,” Theodore told NHL.com afterward. “You need to make a couple of key saves at the key moments.”
However, Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau placed some of the blame on second-year defenseman Jeff Schultz, who allowed Dubinsky to blow around him on the game-winning goal.
It marked another slow playoff start for the highly favored Capitals, who fell behind the Philadelphia Flyers 3-1 in their opening round series last season before extending the matchup to seven games.
Rangers coach John Tortorella credited his team with staying in the game and reestablishing itself by checking and establishing a possession game.
Contact adriel.bettelheim@prohockeynews.com
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