The New York Rangers fell 3-2 in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Washington Capitals on Monday night. Neither goaltender faced an obscene amount of shots--Henrik Lundqvist turned back 22 of 25 shots faced while Braden Holtby turned back 26 of 28--but the quality opportunities were bountiful on both ends of the ice. Ultimately, the Caps just happened to take advantage on more of their chances than the Rangers.
New York never led at any point of the game. The Caps got out to a 2-0 lead on a goal by Mike Knuble and another by Jason Chimera that was set up when Lundqvist mishandled the puck behind his own net. Brad Richards scored just two minutes later to bring the Rangers back within a goal, but New York would never fully recover from Lundqvist's mistake.
After a scoreless 2nd period, Ryan Callahan tipped the puck past a well-screened Holtby off a Michael Del Zotto shot from the center of the right circle. The goal tied the game at two goals apiece, and seemed to turn momentum back in favor of the Rangers.
Alex Ovechkin had other plans, however, scoring just over five minutes later on a powerplay. Ovechkin got the puck in front of the blue line and unleashed an absolute beauty of a wrister into the upper right hand corner of the net.
The Rangers had just over seven minutes to respond, but Holtby was too strong in net. Del Zotto very nearly netted the equalizer in the waning minute of regulation, but his deflected wrister from just in front of the blue line glanced off the crossbar above Holtby's right shoulder.
The bounces simply weren't on New York's side Monday night, and as a result the series heads to Washington tied at one game apiece. Game 3 is set for Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. ET.
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