In Washington, DC, Vitek Vanecek made 32 saves to help the Capitals hold off the New York Rangers on Friday night in a2-1 win.
Artemi Panarin scored a power-play goal in the opening frame to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead they held into the latter minutes of the third period.
“Yeah, it’s tough to stomach because you feel like we played pretty well,” New York’s Chris Kreider said. “I thought we played a really good road game. They jump on two big opportunities there in the third. … We were able to limit chances from a very good team, so definitely a lot of good takeaways.”
The Rangers dropped to 12-13-4.
“I think the guys were just feeling a lot more confident after the Philadelphia [Flyers] game (a 9-0 win Wednesday),” Rangers’ coach Kris Knoblauch said. “To win a hockey game, you score some goals, it feels better, and they just wanted to carry that out. They knew that they were going to have to have a solid effort.”
Alex Ovechkin ruined the Rangers’ night when scored twice in the closing minutes of the game.
“[Ovechkin] goes to the hard areas and that proves it right there,” Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. “I thought we did a better job of finding pucks that actually got through to the net in the third period, and he was in the right position. That was where he was supposed to be.”
Alexandar Georgiev made 16 saves in the loss.
“We had some breakdowns down low. A couple of rebounds in front in the last five minutes,” the Rangers’ Jacob Trouba said. “It’s tough to lose that way, but I don’t think we’re looking at that. We’re looking at the good things we did for 55 minutes of that game.”
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