Caps Top Rangers 5-3 to Earn Fifth Straight Win

Coming from behind to claim points in the National Hockey League has never been an easy chore, but the Caps have made it their bread and butter this season. Facing a Rangers team with seven straight wins on home ice on Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden, the Caps spotted New York a 2-0 lead midway through the second, but roared back to win it 5-3, Washington's fifth straight victory.

It's the fifth time this season that Washington has earned at least a point in a game in which it trailed by two or more goals. Saturday's win was the second for the Capitals under such circumstances this season; three other times they managed to scrape a point out of a comeback that fell short in overtime or the shootout.

Brett Connolly scored with 6:34 left in the third period to snap a 3-3 tie, taking a feed from John Carlson and firing a flat-footed one-timer past New York netminder Alexandar Georgiev for what would prove to be the game-winning goal.
"Just a little bit of open ice," responds Connolly when asked what he saw on the game-winner. "Carly makes good plays all the time, and I saw him over there - I was calling for it. I've had a bunch of chances - I've been working hard for them - and it was nice to see that one go in. I got a good piece of it, it went right where I wanted it and it was good to see that one go in, for sure."
For the second time in as many afternoons, the Caps were a little sluggish out of the gates, and for the second time in as many afternoons, they rallied to win, sweeping their first set of back-to-backs on the season in their fourth attempt at doing so.
"I thought we had a really good back-to-back in Minny and Winnipeg and we didn't get rewarded for it," says Caps coach Todd Reirden. "So maybe tonight wasn't quite as sharp, but we finally were able to get that second win."
Two early power play chances failed to produce any offense for the Caps, and it was the Rangers who jumped out to a first-period lead just seconds after successfully snuffing out the second of those Washington power play chances.
The Caps got caught with too many guys on the wrong side of the puck in the offensive zone as their power play expired, and the Rangers broke out with a two-on-one advantage, and with a third skater trailing the play in the middle of the ice. Kevin Hayes dropped it for that skater, Jesper Fast, and Fast went right to Jimmy Vesey on the right side. Vesey finished the tic-tac-toe sequence, beating Caps goaltender Pheonix Copley just 13 seconds after exiting the penalty box.

New York doubled its advantage midway through the second when Brady Skjei's slapper from the outside of the left circle eluded Copley at 9:39, making it a 2-0 game.
The Caps answered back 31 seconds later, halving the Rangers' lead on Nic Dowd's tip-in of John Carlson's point shot at 10:10, a big goal in the scheme of things, coming so quickly after New York forged a multi-goal lead.
A little over six minutes after Dowd's goal, the Caps drew even on a beauty of a goal from Jakub Vrana. Rangers center Brett Howden wasn't able to handle an airborne pass at the right point in Washington territory, and he turned to pursue it. But Vrana's jet pack wheels made Howden look like he was skating through tall grass. The two were nearly even by the time they reached the red line, and Vrana blew by Howden by the time they reached the New York line. With Howden safely in the rear view, Vrana cut to the middle, deked, and calmly issued a backhander to the shelf, beating Georgiev to make it 2-2 at 16:27.

Washington took its first lead of the game on a forechecking goal in the final minute of the middle frame. The Caps put the puck in deep, and Georgiev went behind the net to halt it, but his exchange with forward Vlad Namestnikov wasn't crisp. Alex Ovechkin dropped Namestnikov with a bodycheck, forcing a turnover and then heading directly to the net as Wilson collected the puck and fed Dmitry Orlov at the point. Orlov went Carlson on his right, and Carlson put the puck right on Ovechkin's blade at the top of the paint, banking it off the blade and in for a 3-2 Caps lead with exactly 30 seconds remaining in the period.
New York tied it up at 3-3 on Ryan Strome's wraparound goal, his first as a member of the Rangers, at 5:30 of the third period. That set the stage for Connolly's game-winner just over eight minutes later.
With Georgiev pulled for an extra attacker, Wilson scored for the third straight game, clearing the puck about 180 feet and into the vacant net with 68 seconds left, sealing the Caps' fifth straight win. Washington didn't win five straight games last season until Dec. 28-Jan. 9, a stretch that included the midpoint of the 2017-18 campaign.
The Caps' most recent five-game winning streak in the regular season was March 20-28, a five-game run in which the fifth one was achieved at Madison Square Garden as well.