The Washington Capitals had their two-game winning streak snapped on Friday afternoon by the Rangers, 6-3, in a game that saw New York score a barrage of goals in the game’s second and third periods. Coming off consecutive 4-3 wins over Phoenix and Winnipeg on Monday and Wednesday, the Capitals hoped to be completely out of the funk that had seen them drop six of seven prior to their two wins earlier this week. However, after allowing six goals to the Rangers in Friday afternoon’s loss, the Capitals may not quite be out of the woods just yet.
Marian Gaborik got the scoring started for the Rangers three and a half minutes into the second period. A few short minutes later, Artem Anisimov netted his second goal of the season to put NY up by two. Rusian Fedotenko put the Rangers up by three just over a minute later and it appeared the game was headed for a blowout. Goals by Brouwer and Carlson, however, cut the lead to 3-2 with still more than seven minutes to play in the period. New York increased the lead back to two with the sixth goal of the period when Brian Boyle capitalized on a loose rebound in front of Michael Neuvirth and scored.
Alex Ovechkin scored a meaningless goal, his eighth of the season, in the third period with the Caps trailing 5-2. The goal snapped Ovi’s six-game streak without finding the net.
The Capitals are now 12-8-1 on the year, and have fallen out of the top spot in the Southeastern Division and all the way down to eighth overall in the Eastern Conference . They’ll skate again tomorrow night at Buffalo. For more Caps coverage, visit Japers’ Rink.