Ovechkin, Capitals top Rangers in shootout for fourth straight win

NEW YORK -- Alex Ovechkin was awarded the deciding goal for the Washington Capitals in a 3-2 shootout win against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

After the officials initally ruled no goal on Ovechkin's attempt, the Situation Room initiated a video review and determined Rangers goalie Alexandar Georgiev threw his stick.
"I knew 100 percent it was a goal because it was an empty net," Ovechkin said. "He threw his stick, but I was surprised the first reaction from the ref (was no goal). It's nice that they have replay."
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Rule No. 25.4 states, "A goal will be awarded when a goalkeeper attempts to stop a penalty shot by throwing his stick or any other object at the player taking the shot or by dislodging the goal."
Georgiev said: "It's tough to explain, but he faked the shot and I went down earlier, and then as he was moving, I kind of threw my leg and the stick at the same time. It's a tough call. I feel like I had my pad on the ice at the moment he was about to shoot. It's not like the empty net was there. Tough call."
Carl Hagelin and Andre Burakovsky scored for the Capitals (38-21-7), who are two points ahead of the New York Islanders for first place in the Metropolitan Division; the Islanders lost to the Philadelphia Flyers 4-1 on Sunday. T.J. Oshie and Nicklas Backstrom scored in the shootout.
Washington has won four straight games and is 10-3-1 in its past 14.
"As soon as it happened, I thought it was going to be a goal instantly, I'm not sure what the delay was," Holtby said. "That's the rule, [Ovechkin] would have had a wide-open net. They made the right call and it was a big win. It's good that the League was on top of it, that's the way it should be handled."
Ryan Strome and Pavel Buchnevich scored, and Georgiev made 37 saves for the Rangers (27-27-11) who have lost four in a row and are 12 points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the second wild-card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
Georgiev made the save on six shots by Ovechkin in the game, including a breakaway at 1:54 of overtime.

"It was probably the right call," Rangers coach David Quinn said. "I wasn't surprised that it was overturned. We really were on our heels in the second, and I thought [Georgiev] did a great job of helping us weathering the storm, for sure. It's a good team fighting for big-time playoff points, and they make it really hard on you."
The Capitals swept the season series with the Rangers 4-0-0 and won the four games by a combined five goals, including three that went beyond regulation.
"Leave it to Ovi to score a goal without scoring," Rangers defenseman Marc Staal said. "It's frustrating to not come away with two (points). We've played these guys hard the last couple of games and had some good opportunities to come away with a win and just were unable to find a way to do it."
Strome gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead 45 seconds into the first period when he scored off a pass from Chris Kreider after a turnover by Dmitry Orlov behind the Washington net.
Hagelin scored to make it 1-1 at 2:03 of the first. It was his first goal in 15 games and first since he was acquired by the Capitals in a trade from the Los Angeles Kings on Feb. 21.
"I felt good since Day One," Hagelin said. "The guys have treated me really well, and I've gotten an opportunity to play with good players. Obviously, it doesn't matter where you play on this team, you're going to be surrounded by some really good players."
Burakovsky scored at 10:02 of the first to give the Capitals a 2-1 lead before Buchnevich tied the game 2-2 at 14:20 of the second period.

"It's big for us to start playing the right way," Holtby said. "We have confidence from this little stretch and we know we are going to be playing against some good teams and we have confidence from this little stretch and we know we're going to be playing-against some really high-powered offenses and it'll be a fun test this next little stretch."

They said it

"It's a first for me. I guess I'll have to see the rulebook. Hopefully someone will tweet it out or something but it's a crazy way to win but if he doesn't throw it, I have to imagine a guy like Ovi is putting it in the back of the net." -- Capitals forward T.J. Oshie
"The guys played really well with courage in front of the net. We were pretty good [on the penalty kill], so those things helped. ... I felt pretty confident during the game." -- Rangers goalie Alexandar Georgiev

Need to know

Burakovsky has five points (two goals, three assists) in his past seven games. ... Rangers center Brett Howden returned to the lineup after missing 15 games with an MCL sprain. He had no shots on goal and was plus-1 in 10:16. ... New York defenseman Brendan Smith played in his 400th NHL game.

What's next

Capitals: At the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, TVAS, NHL.TV)
Rangers:At the Dallas Stars on Tuesday (8:30 p.m. ET; FS-SW, MSG, NHL.TV)