Artemi Panarin scored the go-ahead goal in the third period and added an assist to lead the visiting New York Rangers to a 4-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday and complete the sweep in their Eastern Conference first-round series.
Kaapo Kakko, Vincent Trocheck and Jack Roslovic also scored for the Rangers, who are the first team to advance to the second round this postseason. Goaltender Igor Shesterkin made 23 saves and Mika Zibanejad collected a pair of assists for the Presidents’ Trophy winners as the regular-season champs.
New York will face the winner of the series between the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Islanders, which the Hurricanes lead 3-1 with Game 5 set for Tuesday.
“This was not our best game probably overall, but the power play came up with a big goal at the start of the third and (Shesterkin) made some big saves in the third,” Rangers captain Jacob Trouba said after the game.
Martin Fehervary and Hendrix Lapierre replied for the Capitals, while goalie Charlie Lindgren stopped 19 shots.
Washington star captain Alex Ovechkin was held without a point in all four games. He played only 15:26 and did not register a shot on goal in the elimination game.
“If he doesn’t go on that scoring run (at the end of the regular season) … we’re not even sitting here,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said of his star’s struggles. “He was scoring consistently, every single night. That was a lot, the second half of the year and the last two weeks, where every game felt like life or death for our team. I feel that took a lot out of him physically and mentally going into the playoffs.”
With the score tied at 2-2, Panarin’s power-play goal provided the Rangers their third lead of the game at 3:21 of the third period. Upon circling toward the slot from behind the net, Panarin took a feed from Zibanejad and found the mark for his second goal of the playoffs.
Roslovic’s empty-net goal with 51 seconds remaining in regulation iced the affair.
The Rangers swept an opponent in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2007.
Kakko opened the scoring just 57 seconds into the clash with the game’s first shot. Nick Jensen, who returned from an injury suffered late in the regular season, lost the puck right to Kakko in the slot, and he immediately fired a shot home for his first goal of this year’s playoffs.
“That first goal was big,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said of Kakko’s tally. “We chatted this morning about taking charge in the game and attacking the game and making a difference offensively. … Washington came out with a lot of pep in their step and to get that goal I thought was really important early in the first period.”
Fehervary tied the count at 14:54 with his second of the series, burying an offering after Dylan Strome created a turnover and three-way play to the marker.
Trocheck, with his third goal of the playoffs, again put the Rangers ahead with 15.6 seconds remaining in the opening frame. While on the power play, Trocheck neatly kicked a pass to his stick and lifted a top-shelf shot.
However, Lapierre again pulled the Capitals even with his first career playoff goal at 7:48 of the second period. Lapierre gained a step on a defender for a scoring chance and buried his own rebound.
–Field Level Media
