The New York Rangers and Washington Capitals have played a tight series in the first round of the NHL playoffs and Game 5 was no different as the game went into overtime before the Caps were able to get the winning goal to take a 3-2 series lead to put the Rangers on the brink.
Madison Square Garden will be the location on Sunday for a chance for the Rangers to extend the series to seven games for the second straight season in the first round and the team is confident that it can win. The game winner in overtime for the Capitals went past goalie Henrik Lundqvist after being deflected twice and now the Rangers have their backs against the wall after battling all season to make the playoffs. Last year the team went to seven games with Ottawa Senators and eventually won before playing another seven game series, but this time they will have no choice if they want to remain alive and into the next round.
The Rangers have played much better at home in the playoffs over the past two seasons and so far they have only been able to win at the Garden and they will need to do that on Sunday to keep pace and force game seven against the Caps in Washington. The Rangers were down 2-0 in the series and facing a prospect of going down 3-0 after losing Game 2 in overtime 1-0 and they responded with a huge offensive outburst and won 4-3 after holding off a furious comeback attempt by the Caps, who had a six on four advantage to finish the game.
The Rangers have done a solid job of holding back Alex Ovechkin and for a chance to win on Sunday they will need to keep that play going, including the scoring by Derek Brassard, who is leading the Rangers with six points and five assists as well as a clutch power play goal in Game 3. The 2-1 overtime loss in Game 5 could be devastating for the Rangers after giving up the lead, but the team knows that MSG will be rocking and they are ready for goalie Braden Holtby, who has been very solid in net for the Caps. Washington was bailed out by Mike Ribeiro and so far Mike Green has been the most consistent scorer, including the game winner earlier in the series.
New York has been struggling to score all season and both Rick Nash and Brad Richards have been held back by the Caps and will need to bust out in a big way for the Rangers to come out on top. The Rangers have scored two power play goals in the series and Lundqvist has been excellent in net while putting up less than 2.30 goals per game. Holtby has won all three games in the series and the Caps have been much better while killing over 90 percent of power plays and converting over 20 percent with three goals scored.
