Capitals forward Matt Hendricks scored the go-ahead goal with 12 minutes, 7 seconds remaining to lift his team to an eventual 5-3 victory over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night.
Hendricks took a feed in the slot from teammate Matt Bradley and beat New York goalie Henrik Lundqvist. That capped yet another wild night in the Big Apple. Washington never led until Hendricks’ goal. Three times the Rangers went ahead and three times the Caps fought back to tie it. Brooks Laich, John Erskine and Mike Knuble all had goals for Washington. Brian Boyle scored twice for the Rangers.
“Both teams were kind of playing chippy and physical early on – especially in front of their net,” Hendricks said. “But the game kind of calmed down, which benefited us.”
Erskine’s second-period goal – his first in 31 games – was answered less than a minute later by New York enforcer Derek Boogaard. That tally was even more unlikely since Boogaard hadn’t scored in 234 games.
“That should be in the Guinness Book of World Records right there,” said Caps coach Bruce Boudreau. “Easily. That’ll never happen again in the same week let alone the same shift.”
The two teams combined for 28 penalty minutes in the first period alone – including five each for Rangers forward Brandon Dubinsky and Caps defenseman Mike Green, who was involved in a fight for the second time this season. To seal the victory Washington had to kill a late New York power play after a hooking penalty to defenseman Karl Alzner and then added an empty-net goal with six seconds remaining from Laich, his second goal and third point of the night. Washington improved to 11-4-0 with the win and now has 22 points.
“They were outworking us for a little bit and we kind of held on and then in the third the guys who aren’t supposed to be our scorers made a great play,” said Knuble, who hadn’t scored since Opening Night on Oct. 8. “And then we just kind of shut them down at the end. We’ve been getting better at playing with the lead, finishing the game strong without it being like a Chinese fire drill out there.”
Alex Ovechkin and Mike Green both finished with two assists for Washington. Rookie goalie Michal Neuvirth stopped 25 of 28 New York shots. Lundqvist saved 19 of 23. The two teams combined for 34 penalty minutes – 17 each. But in the end it was the Caps’ fourth liners who made the difference.
“We had them,” Boyle said. “I thought we were going to get one at the end. That would have been a great win for us. But that’s how it goes sometimes. You can’t fault the effort.”
