Rangers frustrated after blowing it late in D.C.
WASHINGTON — The level of frustration in the Rangers’ locker room Friday night underscored just how important these division matchups are, even at this juncture considering the competitiveness in the Metropolitan Division, where nine points separate top and bottom.
They knew this was one that got away, displayed when Henrik Lundqvist slammed his stick on the crossbar after the Capitals scored the go-ahead goal with 3:32 left before adding another to hand the Rangers a 4-2 loss.
“Definitely a missed opportunity here, and it stings right now because we worked hard to climb back in it and let them make plays,” Ryan McDonagh said.
Before Matt Niskanen put Washington up 3-2, Kevin Shattenkirk had the puck behind the net for a breakout play. His intended pass for Boo Nieves off the glass was intercepted by Tom Wilson, who scored the dagger with 1:32 left after the Rangers (15-11-2) had erased a two-goal deficit.
Lundqvist, who made 36 saves after missing Tuesday’s game with the flu, saved a long Alex Ovechkin shot after the Capitals (18-11-1) gained possession. Shattenkirk and Nieves were right in front for the short rebound but neither seemed aware of where the puck was, allowing Wilson to poke it to Niskanen for the tap-in.
“We’re two-on-two in front of the net but we just can’t get over the puck,” Lundqvist said. “Extremely disappointing, the way we battled back in this game against a really good team here.”
Alain Vigneault said the mistake on the breakout was not by Shattenkirk but by one of his forwards. Nieves, Paul Carey and Jesper Fast — who tied the game at 2 apiece with 10:23 left in the third — were on.
“We’ve got a controlled breakout, controlled situation. We know what their controlled forecheck’s gonna be. One of our guys doesn’t do the right route,” Vigneault said. “Turnover, and the turnover ends up in the back of our net. Unfortunately it’s something that we didn’t do as well as we should have, and it cost us.”
It took only 14 seconds for the Capitals to take a lead, Jay Beagle scoring on the first shot of the game. That’s all the Rangers would allow in the first period despite being considerably outplayed, the poor-start trend reemerging in a handful of games over the last two weeks. “That’s a tough one to swallow,” Rick Nash, who was on for the first shift, said of the opening goal.
A poor pass by Michael Grabner into Mats Zuccarello’s skates led to Nicklas Backstrom getting the puck all alone in front for a bar-down finish at 11:42 of the second. Grabner redeemed himself by scoring his team-leading 14th goal with 56.9 seconds left in the period, in which the Rangers had turned their game around.
The Rangers withstood a strong Caps push in the middle of the third and had a burst of their own before points slipped from their grasp. “We had them on the ropes with five minutes left,” Nash said, “and just couldn’t close out the deal.”