April 5 vs. New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden<\/p>\n
Time: 7:00 p.m.<\/p>\n
TV: ESPN<\/p>\n
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN\/Caps Radio Network<\/p>\n
Washington Capitals (39-29-9)<\/p>\n
New York Rangers (32-36-9)<\/p>\n
The Caps finish up a weekend set of back-to-back games on Sunday night when they conclude their season series with the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Washington started the set on the good foot, handing the red-hot Buffalo Sabres a second straight regulation loss for the first time since early December, a 6-2 Caps victory on Saturday in DC.<\/p>\n
Washington rode a three-goal first period to victory over Buffalo, which clinched its first playoff berth since 2010-11 earlier in the day when the Rangers prevailed over Detroit in an afternoon contest in Manhattan.<\/p>\n
The Caps also got some help on the out-of-town scoreboard from around the League on Saturday, improving their longshot playoff hopes alive with just five games remaining in the regular season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m not going to sit here and say that I haven’t looked at the standings in the last 24 hours,\u201d says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. \u201cBut it’s irrelevant if we’re not getting two points, and we’re not playing well and we’re not winning hockey games. So, [Saturday\u2019s win] is a huge two points for our group, and we’re going to get on the road, and we’re going to try to do the same, or replicate a lot of the things that we did tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s win was the Caps\u2019 fourth win in their last five games, and they improved to 10-1-2 in their last 13 games on home ice. They\u2019ve managed to earn at least a point in 10 of their last 13 games (8-3-2) and they\u2019ve forged a 14-7-2 mark since Jan. 29 as they mount a late push for a playoff berth.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously [we were] not happy with the way December and January went,\u201d says Caps center Dylan Strome. \u201cI think [they were] our two worst months, and we put ourselves behind the eight ball. And we’ve just been clawing. It feels like similar to two years ago, I guess; it feels like if we lose that game in Buffalo three weeks ago [on March 12], it feels like our season is over, and we just consistently find a way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve obviously got some help around the league. So you can chalk it up to whatever, but we found a way to win four of our last five and claw ourselves right back into this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Needing to play one of their best games of the season against one of the League\u2019s top teams, the Caps came out with plenty of jam. They scored three times before the first television timeout to chase starting goaltender Alex Lyon. When Buffalo responded with a pair of first-period goals to shrink the lead to one, the Caps tightened up defensively, and Logan Thompson stopped all 27 shots he faced the rest of the way, doing so across a span that included five Washington penalty kill missions.<\/p>\n
Back in the lineup from a short absence because of an upper body injury, Aliaksei Protas set up Strome\u2019s first period goal, and then struck himself in the second, delivering his 24th goal of the season on a 2-on-1 rush while the teams played 4-on-4 hockey and giving Thompson some breathing room.<\/p>\n
Washington scored twice more in the third: Ryan Leonard scored on a rip from the slot off the rush \u2013 with help from fellow rookies Cole Hutson and Justin Sourdif \u2013 and Tom Wilson notched his 29th goal of the season, a shorthanded goal.<\/p>\n
Wilson has scored at least one shorthanded goal in eight of the last nine seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know our backs are against the wall here,\u201d says Caps forward Connor McMichael, who had a goal and an assist. \u201cIt seems like we\u2019ve got to run the table, and that’s what we’re prepared to do. And a great team in Buffalo coming in here, obviously clinched this morning or this afternoon \u2013 whatever it was \u2013 but we knew they were going to be hungry and trying to prove themselves and find their footing for the playoffs. So, I was really proud of our effort tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Caps last visited Manhattan on Oct. 12 during their first road trip of the season, also doing so in the second half of a set of back-to-backs. Washington skated off with a 1-0 win that Sunday night, thanks to a 35-save performance from Charlie Lindgren and a second-period goal from Anthony Beauvillier.<\/p>\n
Although the Rangers have underachieved in Mike Sullivan\u2019s first season at the Blueshirts\u2019 coaching helm \u2013 they enter the game in last place in the Eastern Conference standings \u2013 they\u2019ve been playing some of their best hockey of the season recently, and they enter Sunday\u2019s game with a 4-1-0 mark in their last five games. New York has yielded a combined total of seven goals against in those five contests.<\/p>\n
For the Rangers, Sunday is also the second half of a set of back-to-backs. In the fifth game of a seven-game late-season homestand on Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers spoiled Detroit\u2019s day with a 4-1 victory over the Red Wings.<\/p>\n
After hosting the Caps on Sunday night, New York concludes its homestand \u2013 and the home portion of its schedule \u2013 with a Wednesday game against Buffalo. The Rangers will then finish the campaign with a three-game road trip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April 5 vs. New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden Time: 7:00 p.m. TV: ESPN Radio: 106.7 THE…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-186411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-manhattan","9":"tag-manhattan-headlines","10":"tag-manhattan-news","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}