Green's OT winner lifts Caps past Rangers
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Mike Green's power-play goal eight minutes into overtime lifted the Washington Capitals over the New York Rangers, 1-0, in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.
The Capitals went on the power play 7:09 into the extra period when Ryan McDonagh was called for a delay of game after shooting the puck over the glass. Mike Ribeiro controlled the puck at the top of the right circle before setting up Green's one-timer from the point.
"He (Ribeiro) does such a great job drawing guys to him and obviously they are on Ovi (Alex Ovechkin), so I just happened to be open and my goal was to get it by the first guy and try to hit the net," Green said.
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Braden Holtby made 24 saves for Washington, which holds a 2-0 series lead after taking Game 1 by a 3-1 margin on Thursday. He had four shutouts in the regular season.
Henrik Lundqvist stopped 37-of-38 shots for the Rangers, who saw forwards Brian Boyle and Derek Dorsett return to the lineup.
Game 3 is set for Monday in New York.
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"It's tough. It's tough to lose in overtime especially in a game like this but at the same time, we've got two (games) at home now. We have to take care of business at home. We lost two (games) on the road and we've just got to take care of business in our building now," Rangers forward Ryan Callahan said.
Rangers forward Rick Nash almost broke the scoreless deadlock when he hit the post with about four minutes left in regulation. Just seconds later, Washington's Troy Brouwer was sent to the penalty box for slashing, but New York failed to take advantage.
A controversial no-call took place with 45.3 seconds remaining in regulation, when the puck deflected off Washington defenseman Karl Alzner's stick and out of play in the Rangers' offensive zone. However, the officials conferred and ruled that Alzner did not shoot or bat the puck into the stands and it was therefore not a penalty.
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The Rangers did go back on the power play 1:51 into overtime, when Steve Oleksy was called for shooting the puck over the glass. However, New York failed to generate a shot on net.
Lundqvist was solid in the extra session, but failed to stop Washington's eighth shot during the stanza.
An extremely physical first period ended with the Capitals outshooting the Rangers by a 12-7 margin.
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Lundqvist and Holtby made 13 and 12 saves, respectively, in the middle stanza. Each team had five shots on net in the third period.
Game Notes
The Rangers and Capitals are meeting in the playoffs for the eighth time overall and fourth time in five years ... New York went 0-for-3 on the power play ... Boyle (knee) had missed the past seven games while Dorsett, who came over to New York in a trade from the Columbus Blue Jackets on April 3, made his Rangers debut. He had been out of action since March 7 due to a broken clavicle ... Ovechkin added an assist on Green's goal, his 61st career playoff point. The assist moves Ovechkin into second place in Capitals playoff scoring history, passing Mike Ridley.