In Washington, DC, the Capitals played their final card, a mugging, on Sunday, and it blew up in their face as the New York Rangers hung a 4-2 loss on the Caps to sweep their first round series, 4-0, 
1The Rangers hit for three power play goals in the win.
Kaapo Kakko opened the scoring with 57 seconds gone in the game for a 1-0 lead.
Will Cuylle knocked the puck off a Caps defenseman’s stick, with the puck finding Kakko in the slot for a one-timer.
“It happened fast,” Kakko said. “I was thinking maybe take a couple steps like a breakaway, but I was close to the net already. I wanted to shoot it. Maybe hard for a goalie also.”
Igor Shesterkin made 22 saves in the win. At times he seemed shaky, but found enough resilience to nail down the win with a solid third period.
Martin Fehervary tied the game, 1-1, at 14:54, scoring after a turnover by the Rangers.
The Rangers seemed off their game for the first period, and into the middle frame.
Vincent Trocheck scored the first of three power play goals at 19:44 for a 2-1 lead. . Mika Zibanejad collected the puck at the bottom of the left circle, and passed to Trocheck who skated into the crease area for the score.
“I just think that it says that we’re a good hockey team,” Trocheck said of the sweep. “We showed it every game. I think even tonight when we weren’t at our best, we still were able to do the little things right whenever we had a lead. [Shesterkin] obviously helped us out there, but he is a part of the team and whenever we do have a little bit of a letdown, he’s back there to save our butts.”
After the Trocheck goal, the Caps Tom Wilson revealed his inner stupid by mussing Adam Fox who was skating to the celebration behind the Caps cage.
A melee ensued which may have bothered the Rangers to some extent. They were flat footed for rest of the first, and into the middle frame.
Wilson is a menace to any team he is icing against. And someone is going to get hurt.
“It’s always tough to lose a series, especially [when] we have pretty good chances,” the Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin said. “We just didn’t score. Our line didn’t score lots of goals and me, I didn’t play well.”
In the middle frame, Hendrix Lapierre tied the game, 2-2, at 7:48.He scored off his own rebound after skating through the Rangers’ defense.
“I think we played very well 5-on-5,” the Capitals’ John Carlson said. “I think we generated a lot of chances. I think we felt kind of similar to our season, maybe not cashing in as many of our good chances as we could, and (we) severely underperformed on both sides of special teams, which when you look at the numbers, there’s nothing more telling.”
Too bad there are other facets of the game, right?
“It’s going to sound crazy to say in a 4-0 series, but we were right there. Just a matter of details and a couple of bounces,” Lapierre said. “I feel like our will was there, our effort was there. It’s just a matter of being more opportunistic, probably.”
In the third period, the Rangers rediscovered their game with Artemi Panarin scoring off the power play at 3:21, of the third period.
Panarin held the puck down the right side before passing to Fox at the point, who found Zibanejad at the left point who sent the puck back to Panarin in the left circle for a whip shot through traffic for a 3-2 lead.
“Every power play is exciting for me, but this one especially,” Panarin said. “You just understand how important that power play is right now. Every power play is important, for sure, but it’s not that feeling. The third period is special.”
Jack Roslovic iced the series win with an empty net strike on the power play for the 4-2 final count on the scoreboard.
“I thought we played a real smart, hard third period,” New York coach Peter Laviolette said. “Clearly our best period of the night. We got the big power-play goal to go ahead, but then defensively I thought we locked it down really good in the third. Just hard fought.”
The Rangers were 3-for-4 on the power play. The Capitals were scoreless in two chances.
Use CodePHN15 #PHNChairoftheNight goes to Rangers special teams who were perfect on the PK and 3-for-4 on the PP
Charlie Lindgren made 19 saves in the series loss.
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