On paper, Friday night’s Metropolitan Division matchup between the Capitals and the New York Rangers looked like a goaltender’s duel, a battle of a couple of the best in the business in Washington’s Logan Thompson and New York’s Igor Shesterkin. But Shesterkin was unable to finish the game; he left midway through the match at Capital One Arena with a lower body injury, and he needed to be helped off the ice before yielding the crease to Dylan Garand.
And while the final score of Washington’s 3-1 victory over the Rangers would appear to support the theory of a goaltending duel, this was not that. The goaltenders were quite good, but Friday’s game was fought in the trenches, in the corners and in front of the nets. Both teams took away time and space consistently in their defensive zones, and the game devolved into an icing festival in the third period when 10 icing calls were whistled.
A few of the newcomers helped the Caps prevail in Friday’s Metro Division skirmish. Timothy Liljegren’s first goal as a Capital tied the score at 1-1, just before Shesterkin’s departure. And Boone Jenner – with a big non-assist “assist” – from first-year Caps defenseman Vincent Desharnais, bagged the game-winning goal late in the second period.
“Yeah, for sure,” says Jenner, of the relief of notching his first goal in a Caps sweater. “You want to get that out of the way, I think just the timing of the goal, it's a big goal for us and at home, so one I'll remember forever.”
Alex Tuch supplied the game-winner in each of Washington’s first two victories of the season, so all three game-winners have been supplied by first-year Caps.
“It was just a battle on the insides – at both sides – and they made it difficult on us,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “We did a pretty good job, and there weren't a lot of chances either side. I think we've got the expected goals like right around 2.3 or [2.4], which is fairly low. Pretty even game, but just a hard-fought game.
“I didn't think either team really was clean. Both teams were sort of fighting the puck, but they're playing well, and they're defending well, and [it was a] good hockey game. And so, for us to get two points was good to see.”
The Caps killed off an early New York power play in the first frame, but the Blueshirts cashed in on their second man advantage of the opening period. Coming off a hat trick against the Islanders on Tuesday, Alexis Lafreniere started the scoring with a power-play goal at 10:17 of the first. He took a feed from J.T. Miller along the right half wall, cut to the middle and let a shot fly from the slot for a 1-0 New York lead.
Thompson made a couple of good stops on Pavel Dorofeyev in the back half of the first to keep Washington within one.
New York kept the Caps off the board in the first, marking the sixth time in as many games they’ve managed a clean sheet through the game’s first 20 minutes.
Shesterkin made a big stop on Alex Ovechkin following a New York turnover in the opening seconds of the middle stanza, and he also thwarted Tom Wilson’s bid from the slot just over a minute later.
Just after the six-minute mark of the second, the Caps pulled even. Ryan Leonard gained the zone on the right side, leaving a drop pass for Dylan Strome, who sent a cross-ice feed to Liljegren at the left point. From there, the right-shooting Swede clapped a one-timer past Shesterkin to square the score at 1-1 at 6:08.
“It felt good, obviously,” recounts Liljegren. “I don't really remember the goal to be honest. I feel like I just followed it up into play, and Stromer cut back and found me for a one-timer, and I don't even know who screened the goalie there. But obviously, Shesterkin didn't really see anything, so it was nice to see it go in.”
Less than a minute later, the Caps went on the power play, but Shesterkin was injured three-quarters of the way through the advantage; he went sprawling through the crease laterally, and his right foot appeared to catch on the right post. He could not regain his feet under his own power, and after he was slowly helped off the ice down the tunnel, Dylan Garand entered the game for New York.
Shesterkin departed after stopping 13 of 14 shots he faced in 28 minutes and 20 seconds in the crease.
“It’s concerning, obviously,” says Rangers coach Mike Sullivan of Shesterkin. “He’s an elite goaltender, and you don’t ever want to see anybody get hurt. But obviously, he’s an important player for us.”
Sullivan did not have an update on Shesterkin’s condition.
Thompson made another good stop on Dorofeyev just after the midpoint of the middle period, right before an exciting stretch of back-and-forth hockey that lasted nearly five minutes without a whistle.
When the whistle did come, it was the result of the go-ahead goal from Jenner. After Vincent Desharnais used his formidable reach to prevent a New York exit attempt, the blunted bid rolled to the middle of the ice, where Jenner collected it and fired it home, putting the Caps on top 2-1 at 17:38.
“It stems from the forecheck, and those guys are forechecking hard,” says Jenner, referring to Tom Wilson and Justin Sourdif, working below the goal line. “They rim it around, and Vinny does a great job just staying in there. That's what creates it. He's right in that guy's pocket, and I'm able to get a bounce off it and bury one. But it comes from the forecheck and working hard.”
Despite all the icings and the offensive zone draws for both teams in the third, the two teams combined for just 13 shots in the final frame, eight for the Rangers and five for the Caps. Thompson stopped all eight shots he faced in the third; three of them coming in a six-second fusillade early in the frame, a pair of Vladislav Gavrikov shots sandwiched around a much more dangerous shot from the right circle from Noah Laba.
Garand’s biggest stop of the third was a save on Wilson’s rush bid; New York defenseman Adam Fox was penalized for hooking Wilson on the play.
Thompson stopped Dorofeyev for the fifth time late in the third with Garand pulled for an extra attacker, and the Caps got big blocks from P-L Dubois, Marty Fehervary and Desharnais during that span.
In the game’s last couple of ticks, Desharnais got the puck to Wilson, who accounted for the 3-1 final with an empty-net goal at 19:59.
“I love our competitive spirit,” says Sullivan, after his team’s four-game winning streak was halted in Washington. “I think that’s evident every time we stop out onto the ice; these guys play hard. It’s not from a lack of effort; there was a high compete level out there.
“We knew this was going to be a big test tonight against a real good team. They’re big, they can skate, and it’s a one-goal game. It’s a good hockey game.
Friday’s win lifts the Caps to 3-1-0 on the young season, with all three victories coming against Metropolitan opponents.
“It's huge, obviously, and we know that,” says Jenner. “We're going to see Pittsburgh and New York a lot this year, and [those are] huge points. It doesn't matter what time of year, and obviously when it's into the division, they're a little bit bigger. But at the end of the day, you need to collect points, and it was a gutsy, gutsy way to close out that game and make sure we got them.”
