Rangers vs. Capitals Final Score: New York Forces Game 7 with 1-0 Win over Washington
By Josh Hill
The New York Rangers were favored by some to make a serious run at a Stanley Cup this season, but that journey had to go through the Washington Capitals, who have Stanley Cup aspiration of their own. Both of the teams seemed evenly matched and nothing has proved that more than the series we’ve seen out of both the Rangers and the Capitals so far in the first round.
What the Rangers bring to the series are tools to win a Stanley Cup. They have shot blocking defenseman and perhaps one of the best netminders in the game today in Henrik Lundqvist. But the Capitals aren’t pushovers and guys like Mike Ribeiro have proven to be great supporting players around star Alex Ovechkin and this team in Washington is better than it has ben in years because of it.
It’s that reason that this series has already gone six games so it’s no surprise that we’re now going to see seventh game to decide who wins it all and moves on to face either the Maple Leafs or Bruins.
Lundqvist showed off that while it’s been rough in the series so far in terms of stopping the Caps attack, he’s the best goalie in the postseason at the moment. He may be giving up goals, but he didn’t give one up in Game 6 and he’s been making goal that make even the most veteran netminders in hockey blush.
For the Rangers, the win is a massive step forward for a team that looked to have it’s back against the wall after a disheartening Game 5 loss in overtime. But while he loss was a blow to their gut, the Rangers proved even though they lost that they’re in this series until the bitter end. They’ve forced overtime twice in the series but failed to win either of them.
That’s good news for the Capitals who have shown that even if they can’t beat the Rangers the traditional way, they can outlast them and hit things home with a hard overtime push.
Keeping Game 7 confined to just regulation hockey will be something the Rangers need to focus on, but that’s a problem they’re happy to have. We need a full seven games to decide who’s better but the Rangers and Capitals are bound to give us all a hockey game worth watching when the puck drops on Monday night in Washington.