The first game of Sunday evening and Washington went into New York looking to take a 3-0 lead in the series and almost guarantee themselves a place in the 2nd round. New York needed to get some new wheels and get rolling back into this series.
There was big hard hitting from Rangers at start of game, but both teams were playing good defensively and nothing was being given away.
The fans at Madison Square Gardens were involved in this game from the start with Ovechkin being booed everytime he got on the puck. It didn't seem to bother Ovi as he had some good puck possesion and looked lively at the start.
There was a good chance for Mike Green on a Washington powerplay with Gilroy sitting 2 minutes for holding at 15.01 but Lundqvist was up to the challenge.
There was a brief 5 on 3 PP for Rangers at end of period, Gaborik with 2 or 3 good chances but Heuvirth stood firm. Great PK defense by Caps.
It was 0-0 at the end of the 1st with neither side really on top, the shots being 8 to the Rangers and 7 for the Caps.
The Rangers had good puck possesion on a powerplay at the start of the period but there was no way through for them.
5.30 into 2nd period the Rangers took the lead through Christensen. With no angle to shoot the puck he did exactly that and the puck just seemed to go straight through Neuvirth.
Another PP chance just after the halfway mark of the period saw Neuvirth make a couple of good saves as the Rangers tried to extend their lead.
The Caps equalised with 54 seconds of the 2nd period left, Arnott shooting a puck towards the net after Mike Green was tripped and Ovechkin redirected the puck past Lundqvist inbetween 2 defensemen.
The Rangers had the puck in the net right on the buzzer at the end of the period sending the play to review to see if the puck had crossed the line before the clock ran out. With a tough decision to be made between the referee's and Toronto this one took some time to call. Replay's showed the puck on the post at 00.01 and it was determined that it didn't get into the net before 00.00 hit the clock and the game remained 1-1 going into the 3rd period.
Rangers went back into the lead 8.01 into the 3rd. Marc Staal's long shot was fended off by Neuvirth but the puck went straigh to Prospal who tapped th puck into an open net. A huge rebound with traffic infront of the net.
Capitals tied the game up with a PP goal with 5 mintes left. Ovechkin made the pass through the crease to a wide open Backstrom whose one timer went into the pads of Lundqvist and out the Knuble at the top of te crease. He hammered the puck into the net in a flash leaving Lundqvist no chance and the game tied at 2-2.
With 1.39 left in the period the Rangers got the lead for the 3rd time when Dubinsky skated from the wng, deked towards going beind the net and came infront and chipped the puck up towards goal. It deflected off the shoulder of a Caps defenseman infront and fluttered in past Neuvirth.
That was to be the game winning goal as Washington pulled the netminder for the last minute but couldn't find a way back into the game.
At some point in this series the Rangers needed to get some scoring from the likes of Dubinsky, Wolski and Prospal and tonight they started. For the Capitals - they played well defensively again but only got 2 goals for the 3rd time in the series and with Neuvirth conceeding a couple of goals he would like back they didn't do enough up front to help the defence out.
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