One game after being embarrassed in Buffalo, the New York Rangers managed a well-rounded game and defeated the Washington Capitals, 5-2, in a Sunday matinee.
Igor Shesterkin made 26 saves in the win.
The Rangers moved to 45-21-1 for 101 points. It marked the second straight year of reaching the century mark for the Rangers.
“It’s awesome,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said about reaching 100 points. “It means you had a good season, but it doesn’t mean anything in two weeks’ time. You start all over again and try and win. No, it’s good. We’ve had two good years in a row and just want to keep getting better.”
K’Andre Miller put the Rangers up, 1-0, in the first period on a backhand off a rebound of a Vincent Trocheck shot.
New York pushed it to 2-0 at 15:19 of the first on a goal from Alexis Lafreniere.
Lafreniere got a pass from Filip Chytil along the left boards skated over the high slot, and put the puck between his skates before talking a wrist shot for the goal.
“Good play by ‘Fil’ there, and I had a lot of time, so I tried to make a move and it worked,” Lafreniere said. “It was good to score one.”
Kaapo Kakko extended the lead to 3-0 with 60 seconds gone in the middle frame when he put home the puck down low off a feed from Miller below the goal line.
Each member of the Kid Line of Chytil, Lafreniere, and Kakko had points in the anger win. The Rangers are 20-0-2 when each has a point in the same game.
“They’ve been unreal this year,” Miller said. “This back half they’ve been really good. Just how they possess the puck and really work teams down in that O-zone. … They’re a hard line to play against, and they show why they’re all having the years they’re having.”
Washington dropped to 34-34-9.
“We have a responsibility to do our job and do it well,” Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. “Today we didn’t do it well enough. We haven’t done it well enough [and] we sit in the position that we sit in. It’s of our own doing where we’re at right now, and we can be better. We can better than we were today.”
The Caps’ Dylan Strome scored scored at 13:23 to trim the deficit to 3-1 headed to the third period.
Vladimir Tarasenko scored at 5:53 of the third to restore the three0goal for New York, on a nifty wrist shot form the left circle.
Aliaksei Protas scored at 11:44 of the third to trim the deficit back to two, at 4-2.
Mika Zibanejad scored off the power play at 14:14 for the 5-2 final.
Darcy Kuemper made 29 saves in the Caps loss.
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