WASHINGTON — Igor Shesterkin brushed off an early soft goal with an outstanding 27-save performance and Vincent Trocheck continued his stupendous postseason by scoring a power-play goal and assisting on Barclay Goodrow’s eventual short-handed game-winner as the Presidents’ Trophy-winning New York Rangers moved a win from advancing to the second round of the playoffs thanks to a dominant special teams’ effort.
After John Carlson’s knuckler beat Shesterkin, the always-money Chris Kreider responded just 34 seconds later and the Rangers skated to a 3-1, Game 3 victory over the Capitals to take a 3-0 series stranglehold thanks to a 6 for 6 penalty kill.
It’s a new year, but the Rangers didn’t want to drop Game 3 and draw up memories of last postseason when they blew a 2-0 series lead against the New Jersey Devils.
Mika Zibanejad also had two assists for the Rangers, who had a franchise-record 55 wins and 114 points in the regular season.
Even mostly getting away from the Rangers’ hard home matchup of Alexis Lafrenière-Trocheck-Artemi Panarin by virtue of playing at home at Capital One Arena, Alex Ovechkin was held without a point for a third consecutive game. After entering the game with one shot on goal, seven shot attempts blocked and another three that missed the target in the first two games, Ovechkin was held to two shots on goal (Shesterkin robbed him on a first-period power play) and another six attempted.
The Rangers had lost five of their past six games in D.C. Game 4 is in Washington on Sunday night.
What a save by Igor Shesterkin on Max Pacioretty pic.twitter.com/9IIuMRINDQ
— Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) April 27, 2024
Kreider comes through in the clutch
There’s nothing better when you score so quickly in a road game, the home public address announcer doesn’t even have time to blurt out the previous goal. Just 34 seconds after the Capitals took a 1-0 lead on an ugly whiff by Shesterkin, Kreider immediately put that element of doubt into the fragile Caps and their fan base by redirecting Zibanejad’s shot from inside the blue line past Charlie Lindgren. Kreider, the all-time Rangers playoff goal scorer with 42 in 110 career games, picked up his 67th career point to tie Rod Gilbert for third place on the Rangers’ all-time list.
KREIDER GETS IT RIGHT BACK FOR THE RANGERS JUST 34 SECONDS LATER 🤯 pic.twitter.com/TE5evr55so
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 26, 2024
Rangers penalty kill suffocating
The Rangers got into penalty trouble in the first period and throughout the game, but their penalty kill sucked the life out of the Capitals. They not only went 3 for 3 in the opening period, but on one Capitals power play, after Ryan Lindgren took a cross-checking minor, the Rangers scored short-handed, had two two-on-ones and held Washington without a shot. Goodrow got on his horse and hustled his way up ice to bury Trocheck’s pass for the Rangers’ second short-handed goal in as many games to give New York a 2-1 first-period lead. The goal, which came on a delayed penalty, came just 10 seconds after Lindgren entered the box. Overall, the Rangers’ penalty kill went 6 for 6 with Shesterkin stopping eight shots.
That’s one way to kill a penalty — second short-handed goal for the Rangers this series, this one from Barclay Goodrow pic.twitter.com/cil0JO9Uvb
— Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) April 26, 2024
Caps, short-handed on D, lose another defenseman
With the Capitals missing their second defense pair Nick Jensen and Rasmus Sandin to injury, Washington lost another defenseman 12:08 into the first period when Trevor van Riemsdyk was nailed in the head by heavy-hitting Rangers defenseman Matt Rempe. He didn’t return with an upper-body injury. Tom Wilson badly wanted to fight Rempe in the second period and was white hot when Rempe wouldn’t oblige with the Rangers up a goal. Rempe received a two-minute interference penalty for the transgression. Rempe was suspended four games last month for an illegal check to the head, but the NHL’s Department of Player Safety will analyze this latest incident to determine if they deem it a full body check that led to inadvertent head contact. If they do, he’ll get off scot-free unless they feel the lateness of the check requires a hearing. Caps No. 1 defenseman John Carlson logged a game-high 30:12 minutes with Washington’s blue line so decimated.
Matt Rempe was called for interference on this hit on Trevor Van Riemsdyk pic.twitter.com/Ohl97EMDfa
— Rangers Videos (@SNYRangers) April 26, 2024
(Photo: Randy Litzinger / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
