The Washington Capitals got goals from Alexander Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green on the way to defeating the New York Rangers 3-2 in Game Four, evening the series at two wins apiece.
Blocking shots has been a way of life in this series and the Capitals outblocked the Rangers 26-7, with Jeff Schultz leading the way with nine blocks.
Capitals checking centre Matt Hendricks won all nine of his faceoffs and played 17:03, his playoff high aside from 32:05 in the triple overtime Game Three. In the ever-fascinating allocation of ice time among Capitals forwards, Jay Beagle led the way, playing 18:13 (Ovechkin played 15:09).
Also playing more than he has in any playoff games, not including Game Three, Rangers LW Anrtem Anisimov had a goal and an assist for the Blueshirts, playing 18:48.
With Anisimov playing more, rookie LW Chris Kreider saw his ice time cut, down to 7:34, playing three short shifts after Backstrom's goal a little past the midway point of the second period dropped Kreider to minus-2 in the game.
The Rangers started slowly, getting outshot 14-3 in the first period and while they rallied, they had a hard enough time getting shots to the Capitals net, finishing with 20 shots on goal, missing the net with six shots and having 26 shots blocked. The Capitals paid the price to get their win and were rewarded by their big-name players all getting on the scoresheet.
Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook.
