While there weren't as many penalties in the second period as there were in the first, those known for mixing it up decided to find their extremely rare scoring touch as the Capitals and Rangers are tied at 3-3 after the second period.
John Erskine scored his eight career goal and tied the game at 2-2 at 2:34 after Matt Hendricks won the faceoff back to Tyler Sloan, who found Erskine alone on the other side for a top shelf goal past Henrick Lundqvist. Just 41 seconds later, Rangers enforcer Derek Boogaard took advantage of Sloan's misplay of the puck and sprinted down the ice before delivering a bomb of a shot that beat Michal Neuvirth to restore the Rangers' one goal lead. Boogaard's goal snapped a 234-game scoreless streak; his last goal came in January 2006 (the Caps were still wearing black and gold).
Another scoreless streak was snapped tonight by Mike Knuble. Knuble scored his trademark goal at 9:18 to tie the score at 3-3; Knuble crashed the net and put it in a Alex Ovechkin rebound to score his first goal since the season opener October 8 against the Atlanta Thrashers. Knuble's 13-game goal drought was his longest since 2001-02.