In New York, the Rangers played a perfect 25 minutes of hockey to start the game with the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night.
They tailed off after that, but still defeated the Caps, 5-3, to get a big two points to distance themselves form the chase team in the Eastern Conference,
Mika Zibanejad hit for a double in the first period, and Patrick Kane added a power play goal in the first for a 3-1 lad after 20 minutes.
“I think we came out strong, played fast,” Zibanejad said. “It’s important we get a good feeling coming back home. It wasn’t a perfect game all the way through, but I thought we did a lot of good things, a lot of things we can build on going forward.”
Igor Shesterkin made 28 saves in the win, and added an assist.
“Still some room to build, but there was some chances tonight,” Kane said. “I thought our line had some good possessions and just keep building here, keep trying to get more and more comfortable.”
New York improved to 28-19-10 to start a five-game homestand.
Nicolas Aube-Kubel scored for the Caps in the first, his goal tied the game 1-1.
“We just didn’t do things quick enough,” Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. “We didn’t break pucks out quick enough. We held on to it too long. We didn’t attack open ice. We didn’t make the pass when the pass was there. You end up getting checked and things turn over.”
Zibanejad’s second of the stanza came 16 seconds after the tying goal.
“That first period was as good a period as we’ve played all year,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. “Nineteen shots, three goals. Just the way we played. We did everything right.”
Jacob Trouba scored in the fifth minute of the second period to give the Rangers a 4-1 advantage.
The Capitals dropped to 32-29-7.
Washington then scored twice, once in the second period on a goal from Matt Irwin to make it 4-2 to the Rangers, and once in the third to trim the deficit to 4-3, on a marker from Nic Dowd at 11:48.
“Getting behind three goals is tough, but I thought we were right there in it,” Dowd said. “We gave ourselves a chance to win that game. I thought we outplayed them the majority of the game minus that first maybe 10-12 minutes.”
Jimmy Vesey hit an empty net with a backhand shot from the defensive zone for the 5-3 final.
Darcy Kuemper made 31 saves in the loss.
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