NEW YORK—Alex Ovechkin scored a league-leading 53 regular-season goals, so his Capitals teammates have long passed the point of surprise when he makes a dazzling play or shoots a laser into the net. But even by those standards, his goal in the second period Saturday was special.
“That was a big-time goal,” Washington Coach Barry Trotz said.
Ovechkin took a pass from Joel Ward, split the Rangers’ top defensive pair of Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi, and then on his knees, he cracked a lightning bolt-like shot past Henrik Lundqvist into the top corner of the net. It was one of the few highlights for Washington in a 3-2 loss to the Rangers in the Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.