First Period:
- Kaapo Kakko (1) Unassisted
- Martin Fehervary (2) Assists: Aliaksei Protas (2), Dylan Strome (1)
- Vincent Trocheck (3) (Power Play) Assists: Mika Zibanejad (5), Artemi Panarin (1)
Second Period:
- Hendrix Lapierre (1) Assists: Alexander Alexeyev (1)
Third Period:
- Artemi Panarin (2) (Power Play) Assists: Mika Zibanejad (6), Adam Fox (2)
- Jack Roslovic (2) (Empty Net) Assists: Alexis Lafreniere (4), Jacob Trouba (2)
Stats:
Adam Rotter:
- This was the second straight game where the Rangers weren’t at their best. Did I for one second think they would lose this game? No, but I’m not sure that will be the same as they start to play better and more talented teams.
- The Caps played with desperation and were the better team for most of the first two periods. The Rangers were sloppy with the puck and didn’t look sharp. They still had the lead for stretches, but they weren’t as stout with the lead as they could be. You expect that a team on the brink is going to be desperate and throw everything they since they had nothing to lose, but they were feeding into Capital attack.
- That changed though in the third period. They grabbed the lead and then defended really well for a long stretch. The Capitals obviously kept pushing and there were a few shaky moments, but overall the third period and how they defended the lead is how you want to see them play consistently.
- That was a real cool move the Rangers made on the PP on Artemi Panarin’s goal. He kept moving, went around the net and found the space to score and essentially send the Ranger to the second round. Panarin hasn’t dominated this series, but he’s been good and maybe the best he’s been, so far, as a Ranger in the playoffs.
- The Rangers scored 15 goals in this series. They had 7 at 5-on-5, 6 on the PP and 2 shorthanded.
- Igor Shesterkin was again really good in net. He didn’t need to be amazing like he was in Game 3, but he was still really good. Mika Zibanejad had a great series, Vincent Trocheck had a great series, Barclay Goodrow showed he could still be an effective playoff guy and they got goals up and down the lineup.
- Matt Rempe made an impact on this series is very minimal minutes, but, as expected, he sat when games were tight. Unless he gets hurt or suspended it’s unlikely he’s going to come out of the lineup and so the Rangers will have to manage which players get double shifted so as not to overload guys too much.
- I don’t want to say that the playoffs really start for the Rangers now, but with how much more talented and better the Rangers are than the Capitals, this always seemed like a foregone conclusion. Maybe not a sweep, but if this series got past 5 games I think it would have reflected more poorly on the Rangers than positively for the Capitals. They earned the right to play the lowest seed in the East and while it wasn’t an easy series for the Rangers, it certainly wasn’t as hard or tight as any remaining series will be. For the most part they flexed their muscles as the better team and now they get a probably not yet determined amount of days until the Second Round starts.
- Now we wait for the winner of Carolina and the Islanders. Carolina can close it out on Tuesday at home, but the Islanders won’t go down easy. Either will be a much tougher matchup than Washington was and the Rangers will need to shore things up and play a bit more consistently to keep advancing.