WASHINGTON – If games were won according to territorial advantage, the Washington Capitals would have their first-round series against the New York Rangers virtually sewn up.
Instead, it’s New York holding a 2-0 series lead, after a methodical 1-0 shutout Saturday afternoon that saw Henrik Lundqvist notch 35 saves and his teammates block another 29 shots. The series shifts to Madison Square Garden for Games Three and Four on Monday and Wednesday.
The defense-first approach frustrated Washington, which came up short for the second straight game despite dominating play in the New York end.
Capitals head coach Bruce Boudreau sat veteran goaltender Jose Theodore and inserted 20-year-old Russian rookie Simeon Varlamov in net, in an effort to shake up his team. But the result was the same as in Wednesday night’s series opener, as New York showed more drive and got a timely goal from one of its grinders.
The Rangers tallied the only score of the game at 7:44 of the first period, when Brandon Dubinsky sent an outlet pass along the boards to Markus Naslund while Washington’s Mike Green and Viktor Kozlov were pinching. The play developed into a 2-on-1, with Naslund cutting through the left faceoff circle and sliding a pass to Ryan Callahan, who deflected it over Varlamov’s glove.
Dubinsky scored the winning goal on a play with Naslund in game one.
“We just have to score goals,” said Capitals sniper Alex Ovechkin, who took six shots on goal but had another seven blocked. “We made one mistake in the first period, they used it and we didn’t score goals.”
Fredrik Sjostrom had a key block late in the second period, when Ovechkin launched a hard shot off a faceoff during a power play. Ovechkin managed to ring a shot off the crossbar with 6:01 remaining in the game, but Washington generally was limited to perimeter play and didn’t get quality second chances.
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