POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Caps 5, Rangers 4

Six-Pack To Go -On Sunday afternoon at Capital One Arena, the Caps finished off a six-game homestand with a 5-4 win over the New York Rangers. The Capitals were home for nearly two full weeks, playing six games and winning five of them (5-1-0).

The final half of the homestand was packed into a sardine can; while the Caps played the first three games of the homestand over a span of five nights and then had four straight days with no games, the final three games were condensed into a span of 68 hours. Ahead of a five-game road trip to the New York metro area where it will face the same three teams it faced on the homestand, Washington collected all six points during those 68 hours, sweeping a back-to-back set of games from New Jersey on Thursday and Friday before holding off the Rangers in Sunday afternoon's finale.
For the first 40 minutes of Sunday's game against the Rangers, the Caps were methodical, businesslike and focused, and it appeared they might dispatch the Blueshirts - a team that won three of the first four meetings between the two clubs this season - rather easily. But the Rangers roared back with four goals in the third period, making Washington's two third-period tallies - from Evgeny Kuznetsov and T.J. Oshie, respectively - critical.
"I think we could probably tighten it up a little bit more," says Caps right wing Tom Wilson, who scored two goals in Sunday's win. "Obviously when you get to crunch time here at the end of the year, you can't be giving up that many goals in the third. But that being said, we found a way to win. We scored enough tonight, and we need to manage the game a little better. When we feel it shifting toward their favor, we've just got to have a couple of good shifts to eliminate that."

While some may choose to focus on the fact that the Caps yielded four goals in their ninth period of hockey in 68 hours (it should be noted the Rangers were also playing their third game in less than 72 hours), it's worth remembering that Washington permitted only three goals in the first eight periods of hockey during that span.
And more importantly, that the Capitals collected all six points, which is the most critical element of an absolute outlier of a season in which games are shoehorned into a tight schedule, and in which that schedule is constantly subject to change because of COVID outbreaks on other teams in the division. The NHL announced more upcoming schedule alterations for the Capitals on Sunday; Washington's schedule has changed a handful of times since the season got underway on Jan. 14.
"You want to win games," says Wilson. "It's a long season and every game is very different, and you learn from it. Each game is different, different outcomes and different plays. That being said, if there is a trend, we want to address it. The whole season is definitely just to get ready for the meaningful hockey. You want to win games and you want to get there, and you want to build your game and feel good about it going into the playoffs. We've got to keep collecting points - first and foremost - and playing the right way is always nice."
This One Goes To Eleven -Ovechkin continued his torrid scoring tear with another goal in Sunday's game, his 11th goal in his last 11 games. The Caps' captain now has 10 goals in his last nine games and has had at least one lamplighter in eight of the team's last nine games.

With 18 goals on the season, Ovechkin has moved into a tie for fifth place in the League's goal scoring chase, and he is now just four goals behind Toronto's Auston Matthews, the circuit's current leader. At one point earlier this season, Ovechkin was 13 goals behind Matthews, who was the League leader at that point; Matthews had 18 goals and Ovechkin had five.
Ovechkin has won nine Rocket Richard Trophies over the course of his NHL career, and the largest goal deficit he has ever overcome to win one of those Richard Trophies was 11 goals in 2012-13, which was also an abbreviated season. Entering play on March 13-14 of that season, Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos had 20 goals to Ovechkin's nine. By season's end, Ovechkin had 32 to Stamkos' 29.
Down On The Farm - The AHL Hershey Bears hosted the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins at Giant Center on Sunday afternoon, skating off with a 3-1 victory, the Bears' fourth triumph in a row.
Brian Pinho started the scoring just 18 seconds into the opening period, netting his third goal of the season with assists from Martin Fehervary and Philippe Maillet. That 1-0 lead held up until the middle of the second when the Baby Pens knotted the score.
Late in the third, Hershey took advantage of a power play to regain the lead, going up 2-1 at 16:53 of the third when Matt Moulson scored his sixth of the season with help from Joe Snively and Cameron Schilling. In the game's final minute, Shane Gersich scored an empty-netter to account for the 3-1 final, and Damien Riat supplied the solo assist.
Pheonix Copley stopped 26 of 27 shots to improve to 4-2-1-0 on the season. Hershey is now 11-4-2-0 on the season, and it is 4-1-0-0 against then Baby Pens in 2020-21.
The Bears are idle until Wednesday night when they visit Lehigh Valley.
By The Numbers - John Carlson led the Caps with 22:52 in ice time … Ovechkin, Carlson, Oshie and Carl Hagelin each had three shots on net to lead Washington … Carlson led the Capitals with six shot attempts … Carlson, Garnet Hathaway and Zdeno Chara each had four hits to lead the Caps … Carlson and Dmitry Orlov blocked three shots each to lead the Caps … Nic Dowd won 10 of 13 face-offs on the afternoon (77 percent).