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In a potential first-round playoff preview, the Rangers fumbled their last game before the trade deadline.
The Washington team has been a dominant force in the Eastern Conference of the NHL this season, evident from their recent victory over the Rangers. Tom Wilson’s goal in overtime secured a 3-2 win, marking their third victory against the Rangers this season at Madison Square Garden.
Despite the Senators’ overtime win against the Blackhawks, the Rangers remain in a tie for the second wild-card position. They hold the advantage in the tiebreaker based on their regulation wins.
This was a winnable two points for the Rangers, who are well aware of their precarious need for as many as they can get right now.
The Rangers faced an early setback in their game on Wednesday night, conceding their 12th goal of the season within the first two minutes. Pierre-Luc Dubois capitalized on a backhanded feed from Wilson to open the scoring just over a minute into the game.
Then Zac Jones, skating in his fourth straight game, showed off on both sides of the puck.
The 24-year-old defenseman first blocked a shot before his outlet pass to Alexis Lafreniere sprung the Rangers the other way.
Lafreniere entered the zone and dished back out to Jones, who whipped the puck from long range for Artemi Panarin to redirect past Capitals goalie Charlie Lindgren.
While they were only able to record one shot on goal during a four-minute power play from Ethen Frank’s double minor high-sticking penalty on Brett Berard, the Rangers were humming in the offensive zone.
K’Andre Miller finessed a dynamic keep-in at the blue line before sending the puck back in, where Sam Carrick collected and backhanded it in to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead just over eight minutes into the second period.
That’s when the temperature on the ice rose.
Wilson got in Matt Rempe’s face before Carrick fought with Brandon Duhaime.
Martin Fehervary and Matt Roy later combined for a hit from behind on Brennan Othmann, who was shaken up on the sequence.
Newcomer Jusso Parssinen came to Othmann’s defense, dropping the gloves for just the second time in his three NHL seasons.
Several of his new Rangers teammates skated to the box to give him props.
With Jones in the box for hooking in the third, however, Alex Ovechkin scored his ninth power-play goal of the season to knot the game at two-all.
It moved him within 10 goals of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time scoring record.