Well, friggin yay! That is five! The Rangers came up huge on Saturday, and for the first time in 20 years won a game 2 at home, defeating the Washington Capitals 3-2 and evening the 2nd round series at one game apiece.
It wasn’t decisive – those damned Capitals kept coming – and twice they
cut 2 goals deficits in half. But in the
end the Rangers held on for the 3-2 win.
The victory staved off disaster – keeping the Rangers from a 2-0 hole. It doesn’t erase the pain of the last second
loss in game one – but is was a huge step in the right direction.
Hanks was a monster again – stopping .938 of the shots that came his way -
including a few spectacular saves.
Chris Kreider got the Rangers rolling in the game’s first minute – netting
the Holtby rebound to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. And then later in the first – Dan Boyle came to
the party as well. Boyle hustled on the power
play to keep the puck from clearing the zone- then shot the puck perfectly in the
upper left hand quarter of the net for the 2-0 lead.
In the 2nd Ovechkin drew two Ranger defenseman to him and
passed the puck to a wide-open Evgeny Kuznetsov who beat Hank for a 2-1
deficit.
In the third it was Derek Brassard to the rescue. Brassard got the puck alone in front and just
spun it between the Capital Goaltender’s pads for the 3-1 lead.
But of course – a few minutes later it was Ovechkin again – splitting two
Ranger defensemen and banging the puck past Lundqvist as the Russian fell to
the ice.
That made it 3-2 – but the Rangers and Lundqvist would let them get no
further and Rangers hung on for the 3-2 win
What Did We
Learn? That the Rangers are still in this series.
Assist “Sisters”: One each for Fast, Stepan, St. Louis, and
Nash.
Did Special Teams
Determine The Outcome Of This Game? Happily we can say yes
in a good way. The Ranger’s hit on one
of their four powerplays and shut the Caps out in their lone extra skater
chance,
Where Do We Stand?
Tied 1-1 in round 2.
Oh My - What Will Happen
Next? Monday night in
Washington DC for game 3.
Non-Sequitur of the
day: A lot of sports today –
but this was my favorite outcome.
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