POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Rangers 5, Caps 2

Troubled Thirds - Heading into Tuesday night's Caps-Rangers game at Madison Square Garden - the fourth meeting between the two teams in a dozen days - both clubs had a handful of players with hot hands who had been shouldering the lion's share of the scoring load for their respective teams in recent games.

While the Rangers' group stayed hot on Tuesday, the Caps' group went quiet. Although Washington jumped out to a 2-0 lead before the game was five minutes old and threatened to expand on that advantage for a few minutes afterwards, that was all the attack the Caps could muster in a 5-2 loss to the Blueshirts.
New York defenseman Adam Fox - the League's first star for the week ending March 28 - scored what would prove to be the game-winning goal at 6:22 of the third period. Fox now has an eight-game point streak (two goals, 13 assists), the longest of his NHL career. Rangers center Ryan Strome provided the primary assist on Kaapo Kaako's tying goal two minutes earlier, extending his personal point streak to 10 straight games (two goals, 13 assists), also a career high.
Caps killer Artemi Panarin picked up three points (one goal, two assists) during New York's third-period outburst, giving him 10 goals and 24 points in 21 career contests against the Capitals. Panarin has had a hand in nine of the 20 goals the Rangers have scored against Washington in six games this season (two goals, seven assists).
The Caps' power play ended a five-game dry spell with a T.J. Oshie tally at 2:23, but Washington's only 5-on-5 offense came from its fourth line, a Nic Dowd goal at 4:22 of the first.
New York netminder Igor Shesterkin stopped each of the next 28 shots he faced in the game. Washington carried a 2-1 lead into the third period, but for the second time in as many games against New York, it yielded four third-period goals, the last of which was an empty-netter.
"First of all, they're a good hockey team and they're very skilled out there," says Caps center Nicklas Backstrom. "As for today, I think going into the third period with a 2-1 lead, you can't give them odd-man rushes, breakaways and stuff like that. We need to do a better job in the third periods."
Washington is 10-2-0 in its last dozen games, and it has allowed 29 goals for an average of 2.42 per game over that span. But 19 of those 29 goals have been scored in the third period of those dozen contests.
"Like Nicky said, we've got to find a way to be able to finish these games and play stronger defensively," says Caps defenseman Zdeno Chara, "making stronger plays and really taking pride in our defense and being able to finish and find a way to win these games."
Entering Tuesday's tilt at MSG, the Caps were 18-1-0 when leading after three periods, with their lone loss under those circumstances coming nearly two months ago, in a 5-3 defeat at the hands of the Boston Bruins in the District on Feb. 1. The Caps were also dented for four goals in the third period of that game, one in which they owned a 3-1 lead going into the final 20 minutes.
Thirty-five games into the season, Washington has permitted multiple goals in a period 24 times: twice in the first period, nine times in the second and 13 times now in the third.
Best Of You - Dowd's goal was his seventh of the season, matching his goal total from last season in 21 fewer games. Dowd's single-season career best is eight goals (in 64 games) with Washington in 2018-19, his first season with the Capitals.
Marching On - Washington finished the month of March with a record of 11-3-0 for a points percentage of .786. The best month of March in franchise history was a 12-2-1 (.833) performance by the 2010-11 edition of the Capitals.
The Magnificent Seven - Heading into Tuesday's game with the Rangers, eight Capitals had played in all 34 of the team's games to date this season. That number dwindled to seven when Richard Panik was a healthy scratch as a result of Lars Eller's return to the lineup after a seven-game absence because of a lower body injury.
Without a point in his last six games, Panik's nightly ice time shrunk to less than 10 minutes in four of his last six and five of his last eight games, the only games this season in which he has been below the 10-minute threshold.
Powering Up -Oshie's power-play goal halted an 0-for-13 drought with the extra man that spanned five games. The Caps scored 15 power-play goals in their first 17 games of the season (15-for-45, 33.3%) and have scored just half a dozen extra-man tallies in 18 games since (6-for-43, 14%).
Oshie has six power-play goals this season, tops on the team.
Gotham Woes - Dating back to last season, Washington has lost four straight games (0-3-1) to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, yielding at least four goals in each of the four losses and being outscored by a combined 19-10.
"They're a fast team, they're a young team," says Chara of the Rangers. "We've just got to find a way to put 60 minutes together. I think that in most of those games we didn't put 60 minutes together. Even in then games we won - for example, the last game at home - we won the game, but I don't think that we had a full 60-minute game that we wanted to play. They took over in the third period and scored some goals. We were able to win the game, but I think it's one of those things where we've got to be able to play the same way for 60 minutes."
By The Numbers - John Carlson led the Caps with 23:56 in ice time … Daniel Sprong and Evgeny Kuznetsov led Washington with four shots on net each … Garnet Hathaway led the Caps with three hits … Hathaway and Nick Jensen had three blocked shots each to lead the Caps … Dowd won eight of 13 draws (62%) and Oshie won four of five (80%).