Niskanen Puts it in For Caps' OT Win

October hockey isn't always pretty, and the Capitals' 4-3 overtime win over the New York Rangers on Wednesday certainly was no masterpiece. But in the wake of two straight setbacks, the two points gained with the win are welcome for Washington, even if a division rival picked up a point as well.

Matt Niskanen netted the second overtime game-winning goal of his NHL career to lift the Caps to victory, putting the rebound of an Evgeny Kuznetsov shot behind Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist at 2:18 of the extra session.
"It's nice to score," says Niskanen. "I didn't do much. Kuzy did a lot of nice work there. I just had to put it in."

Coming off three days of rest, the Caps were facing a New York team that played on Tuesday night in Manhattan, and Washington was able to win on Wednesday by showing improvement in some areas that were lacking in its two previous losses.
The Caps' start was decent enough; they spent a fair amount of time in the New York zone and put a few pucks toward Lundqvist. But it was the Rangers who drew first blood, getting a Mika Zibanejad goal at 6:09 of the first. Zibanejad put back a rebound of a Chris Kreider shot.
Minutes later, Caps defenseman Christian Djoos made a clutch crease sweep to pull the puck off the goal line just as it was about to slide over, preventing the Rangers from doubling their early lead. That play loomed larger when the Caps pulled even late in the first.
In the immediate aftermath of an icing call against the Rangers, Nicklas Backstrom won a right dot draw in the offensive zone, pulling it cleanly back to John Carlson at the right point. Carlson put a drive on net, beating Lundqvist to the short side to even the score at 1-1 at 14:05 of the first.
Face-offs have been an early season sore spot for the Caps, but they've worked on draws recently in practice, and won 35 of 66 (53%) on the night. For Caps coach Todd Reirden, it was heartening to see the practice work pay dividends in a game.
"Obviously we spent quite a bit of time working on face-offs the other day," says Reirden, "so it was nice to see a face-off goal right after practicing it and watching some video on it. That was a nice way to have things work out."

Caps goalie Braden Holtby had a good night, making 29 saves, including some strong stops to deny the Rangers on second chance opportunities. Early in the second, he made a right pad stop on Kevin Hayes, who pounced on a rebound of a right point shot at the top of the paint.
Washington took its first lead of the night on its first power play chance early in the second. From the right wing corner, Brett Connolly threw the puck up high, and Carlson made a great keep at the point, lunging to flag the puck down on his backhand and then quickly sending a saucer pass to Alex Ovechkin. Perhaps even more amazingly, Ovechkin one-timed the short-hopped pass without settling it, and his drive eluded Lundqvist to give the Caps their first lead of the night at 3:32 of the second.
Just after the midpoint of the middle period, the Rangers drew even on a power play of their own. Five seconds after Dmitry Orlov was seated for holding, New York's Jimmy Vesey scored from the paint, pouncing on a loose puck after Devante Smith-Pelly blocked Neal Pionk's shot from the point.
The Caps regained the lead late in the frame when Ovechkin netted his second power-play goal of the period, this time one-timing a no-look Carlson feed past Lundqvist at 17:01.
New York had a flurry of late chances in the second, but Holtby held firm, enabling the Caps to take that 3-2 advantage into the third.
In the third, Washington exactly as a team with a one-goal lead should against a weary team, forechecking the Rangers hard and forcing some icing calls. This was a departure from the way the Caps played in the third on Saturday against Toronto, when the Leafs were able to take control and ultimately earn the win.
New York looked heavy-legged in the first half of the third, but Nathan Walker's poorly timed offensive-zone holding call at 9:20 gave the Blueshirts the man advantage, and they tied it up at 3-3 when Kreider tipped Pionk's point shot past Holtby at 10:25.
New York gained some jump from that development, and the two sides traded chances the rest of the way. The Rangers were able to kill off a late penalty on Hayes, and the game went into overtime.
Washington didn't manage the puck very well in the extra session, but it ultimately generated the only two shots of overtime, and Niskanen netted the game-winner. Seventeen of his 57 career goals have been game-winners, a remarkable percentage.

First-year Rangers head coach David Quinn faced the Caps for the first time, and was asked what it was like to witness Ovechkin's work from his office on the power play.
"Sickening," says Quinn.
Reminded that his team stopped the Caps' extra-man unit late in the third, Quinn elaborated a bit.
"Yeah, we did. We made a little bit of an adjustment on the PK. They still had some chances. It's amazing watching them, how calm they are. They don't rattled. There is a confidence to them, a swagger to them, which they should have. They've been playing together a long time and they're the defending Stanley Cup champions. They should play with swagger."
Fellow first-year head coach Reirden was complimentary toward the Rangers in return, too.
"You always like any win you can get," says Reirden. "[The Rangers] are a hard working group, for sure, young players that are hungry. Obviously back-to-back for them is difficult, but I've got to give them credit for their work ethic. They blocked a number of shots. They paid the price to help keep it out of their net. I thought they were really committed defensively to do that."