Victory! Rangers beat Caps to Win Series

Incredibly, your New York Rangers have done it again. For the second straight season they have risen from the dead and fought back from a 3-1 series deficit to improbably leap to the third round of the playoffs.

The Capitals are a team on the rise and played with skill, power, and resilience.  Ovechkin is like a different player – as his plus-minus showed this year.  He’s finally a complete player and he and Holtby quite nearly won the day and the series. 

But somehow we found a way to beat them three straight and win the series by the narrowest of margins. 

Trailing 1-0 in the second – off an Ovechkin goal where Alex found one second of freedom from a chasing McDonagh to give Washington their last lead of the series – the Rangers were on their 4^th powerplay. The Capital’s Green had been out of the penalty box for less than a minute when the refs sent him back there.  JT Miller found the rookie Kevin Hayes streaking towards the net. Hayes found the puck on his stick for a simple tip in and to MSG’s delight we were tied 1-1.

The third period had plenty of action and no goals and so on to overtime we went with the series in the balance. 

In the early going of extra time the Capitals dominated –especially in one sequence where Dominic Moore had his stick deliberately broken with no call from the referees and the Rangers could not clear the puck.  But somehow the defense and Henrik held and the Rangers finally went on the attack. 

The final sequence was thrilling.  The Rangers appeared to run a set play off the faceoff in the Caps zone.   Girardi fired the puck through traffic and Holtby couldn’t see it   He dropped to the ice and the puck rocketed off his pads and right to Derek Stephan at the left circle.  Holtby was late tracking it and still down on the ice.   He dove to his right to try and stop it – but the puck found the back of the net and the Rangers had the overtime winner.   

What Did We Learn?  That hockey season in New York is not finished yet!

Assist “Sisters”:   One each for Miller, McDonagh, Girardi and Yandle.

Did Special Teams Determine The Outcome Of This Game?  YES!  We shot down all thee Capitals powerplays and we scored one on of our 4.  That was the difference.

Where Do We Stand?  We win the series 4-3.  8 wins from the cup.

Oh My - What Will Happen Next?  Saturday at home vs. Tampa Bay.

Non-Sequitur of the day:  It’s too good to be true.  Ovechkin - that bad man- has finally gone away.