In a potential first-round playoff preview, the Rangers fumbled their last game before the trade deadline.
Washington has all but run away with the Eastern Conference as one of the most dominant teams in the NHL this season, over which they have now swept the Rangers in all three of their meetings after Tom Wilson scored with 52.3 seconds left in overtime to take a 3-2 win Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.
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 gave up their league-leading 12th goal within the first two minutes of a game Wednesday night, when Pierre-Luc Dubois put in a backhanded feed from Wilson to open the scoring just over a minute after the puck was dropped.
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.
