Short-handed Rangers shut out by Habs
Ovechkin and Capitals burn Devils; Nabokov dazzles as Islanders blank Sabres
MONTREAL – Two more potentially serious injuries. Another soft offensive performance. Another benching of a star player. And another Rangers loss at their House of Horrors known as Bell Centre.
With three second-period goals on Saturday night, the Canadiens pulled the rug out from under Martin Biron and the depleted Rangers, and Carey Price made 17 saves in Montreal’s 3-0 win.
At 8-7-2, the Rangers look like a playoff bubble team, although there is twothirds of a season to play. But without any production – they have scored only five goals in the last four games – even that prediction could be undermined.
Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi, two of the team’s top three defensemen, left the game and didn’t return.
Max Pacioretty left his feet, elbow raised, to plaster McDonagh face-first into the glass at 7:20 of the second period. Pacioretty received a two-minute minor for boarding.
Girardi was helped off, without putting weight on his right ankle, after a gutty block of P.K. Subban’s slap shot on a five-on-three in the final minutes.
Coach John Tortorella provided no updates on the injuries, but he believed Pacioretty deserved harsher punishment. He started his postgame news conference by asking: “How high did Pacioretty jump on his hit? Can anybody give me an answer? I’m asking you guys. Can anybody give me an answer? Over-under?”
Then he shot down a response of “six inches” with “Wrong.” Pacioretty was not made available to reporters.
The Rangers, who have a 0-6-1 losing streak here dating to March 17, 2009, hardly did anything right.
The Rangers need Rick Nash, who was placed on injured reserve on Saturday night, to return, as well as defenseman Michael Del Zotto, who was out with a leg injury.
Compounding the issue: Few contributions are coming from slumping Brad Richards and erratic Marian Gaborik, who was benched for the third period after a late second-period penalty.
“We were not good enough from top to bottom,” Biron said. “We have pretty much the same core guys who were here for the last three years and we were hard to play against. We’ve got to get back to that, and we will put the work in.”
(Newsday/MCT)
Capitals 5, Devils 1
WASHINGTON – New Jersey Devils right wing Ilya Kovalchuk never doubted that his good friend, Alex Ovechkin, was going to start scoring goals in bunches again. OTTAWA SENATORS forward Erik Condra (center) scores on Toronto Maple Leafs’ goalie Ben Scrivens as he is hit by Toronto Maple Leafs defender Korbinian Holzer (top) during the second period of the Senators’ 3-2 home victory in Saturday night’s ‘Battle of Ontario.’
He just wishes that the Washington Capitals captain waited one more game to do it.
A day after Kovalchuk confidently predicted, “it’s going to go in” for Ovechkin, he scored three goals and an added an assist in the Capitals’ rout of the Devils on Saturday.
“He played great, obviously, but we can’t give him that much room,” Kovalchuk said of Ovechkin.
Ovechkin played well in the Devils’ 32 victory over the Capitals on Thursday night as well, getting three breakaways, but had nothing to show for it on the score sheet.
Like Kovalchuk, Capitals coach Adam Oates had professed faith in Ovechkin on Friday that the goals would come “sooner or later.”
The Devils wished it was later, but they didn’t help their cause by leaving Ovechkin alone in the left circle for a one-timer that gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead 5:20 into the second period. The Devils appeared to be in good shape, though, after Kovalchuk tied the game with his goal with 37.5 seconds left in the second period.
Instead, the Capitals scored four unanswered goals, including two more from Ovechkin for his 11th career hat trick.
The Devils are just 2-3-1 following a five-game winning streak that culminated with a sweep of a home-andhome series with Pittsburgh two weekends ago.
Their only two wins since then were a 5-3 victory over Philadelphia on February 15, in which they rallied from a 3-1 deficit, and Thursday’s win over the Caps, in which they trailed, 2-1, in the third period.
(Hackensack Record/MCT)
Islanders 4, Sabres 0 BUFFALO – Evgeni Nabokov has had some good moments in the Islanders’ net this season.
On Saturday night he had some great ones, very much earning his first shutout of the season. The Islanders’ win capped a 2-1-0 road trip and brought them back within a game of .500 and two points of eighth in the East.
“He played great tonight,” Matt Moulson said of Nabokov, who finished with 35 saves for his 53rd career shutout. “When we needed a big stop, he was there to make it.”
Never more so than on two Sabres power plays back-to-back in the second period with the game still scoreless. While killing a too-many-men penalty 12:16 into the second, Nabokov flashed to his right to stop Buffalo’s Tyler Ennis. As the penalty expired, Nabokov kicked out a rebound right to Drew Stafford to the left. Nabokov snared the quick shot with his glove.
John Tavares took a bad penalty just 1:10 after the earlier minor expired, but Thomas Vanek whipped a backhand through traffic that Nabokov snared with his glove.
And then the Islanders seized the momentum with a pair of quick goals on Ryan Miller, who had stymied them despite their aggressive, energetic play.
The Islanders will begin a seven-game homestand with the odd record of 6-3-1 on the road and 2-6-0 at Nassau Coliseum. “We need to capitalize,” Moulson said. “We’ve got seven games at our place and we need some wins.” (Newsday/MCT)