Ondrej Pavelec made 30 saves in 1-0 win over the Caps in a shootout Wednesday night
NEW YORK – It was a tale of two backups as both the New York Rangers and Washington Capitals second string goalies got the nod for Wednesday night’s game at Madison Square Garden.
Ondrej Pavelec was rewarded the win with a shutout, stopping all 30 saves he faced while Capitals goalie Philip Grubauer also stopped all 36 shots he faced, but was defeated in the shootout.
“That’s my job,” Pavelec said. “I know it sounds like a cliché, but it wasn’t easy for me, not at all. After the three-day [holiday] break, I didn’t know what I was going to see, but surprisingly I felt really good. I’m happy for the two points. To lose this one, it would be really tough for me.”
Mats Zuccarello and Mika Zibanejad scored as the Rangers only shootout players, as Pavelec stopped T.J Oshie and Alex Ovechkin.
Going into the third period, the Rangers only had 18 shots while the Capitals had 21.
“It took a couple periods to sweat out the alcohol and turkey” Rangers defenseman Marc Staal joked. “So we started to feel better after that.”
They must have sweat it all out because the first half of the third period was all Rangers.
In the first four minutes, the Rangers recorded eight shots on net, the total amount they had in the second period. Grubauer was brilliant, standing tall and answered every Rangers attack, keeping the game scoreless.
After 60 minutes of regulation and five minutes of overtime, the first goal of the game was scored when Zuccarello came in from the left slide slowly, out-waited Grubauer and tucked in a backhand far right.
After going 0-1-1 in their last two games, the rangers got back to their winning ways with their 13th win in 16 home games.
Rangers forward Chris Kreider played the first full twenty minutes but did not come out of the locker room for the second period and missed the rest of the game. His injury is said to be an upper body injury with no timetable.
The Rangers next game will be Friday at Detroit against the Red Wings in their final game before the Winter Classic at Citi Field.
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