Blueshirts Set Two Records in Season Ending 4-2 Victory over Caps

Henrik Lundqvist making a stop against Washington’s Marcus Johansson in the first period of the Rangers’ win at Verizon Center. Lundqvist had 22 saves. (Credit Geoff Burke/USA Today Sports, via Reuters)

The NY Rangers entered the last game of the 2014-15 regular season against the Washington Caps at the Verizon Center with one thing in mind. Enter the Playoffs with a victory.

Three things would be accomplished with a victory. One would be that the Rangers enter the playoffs with a win and wipe away that 3-0 shutout at the hands of the Ottawa Senators on Thursday. Another would be that if this Blueshirt team ended the season with a victory it would be number 53 and that would set an all-time team record. Also, the two points for a victory would give them an all-time team total of 113 points.

The Rangers started fast and took the game to the Caps, who needed this game as well, because even though they were in second place in the Metropolitan Division, they still needed to win to stay ahead of the NY Islanders who were just one point behind and set to host the Columbus Blue Jackets later in the evening. So this game was even more important to the Caps.

But it was the Rangers who scored the first goal of the game on a great shot by Kevin Hayes, who showed extraordinary hand eye coordination. A shot by Ryan McDonagh was saved by Braden Holtby, but the rebound flew out and Hayes whacked it in with a backhanded sweep of his stick. It was an exceptional goal and added another chapter to the rookie story that is Kevin Hayes.

Derick Brassard wound up and blasted a slapper from the point that flew past Holtby and into the net for a 2-0 Blueshirt lead. And as Sam Rosen says so well: “It was a Power Play Goal”.

In the second period, Dominic Moore was deep in the Caps zone and the puck was on its way out except for a neat poke check by Marty St. Louis. Dominic then chased down the puck and in one fluid motion took a sweeping backhander towards the Caps net and saw the puck fly over Holtby’s shoulder and into the net for a 3-0 lead.

The Caps went on their only power play of the game on a borderline tripping call on James Sheppard. And with Shep in the penalty box, Alex Ovechkin scored to cut the lead to 3-1. But that was all the scoring that occurred in the second period.

In the third, the Caps tried to press the play, but the Ranger defense and Henrik Lundqvist kept Washington at bay. And Cap Coach Barry Trots lifted Holtby for an extra skater with about three minutes left in the game and the Rangers’ speed took care of that. A lead pass by Dominic Moore was skated down by Jesper Fast who neatly tucked it into the empty net, to put the final Ranger score on the board. The Caps would score with less than 30 seconds left in the game, as Stanislav Galiev scored his first career NHL goal.

The many Ranger fans in attendance at the Verizon Center were as happy as they could be and the 2014-15 Ranger regular season was now complete.

Scoring:

NYR: Kevin Hayes (17) Assisted by Ryan McDonagh & Marty St. Louis

NYR: Derick Brassard (19) (PPG) Assisted by Kevin Hayes & Dan Boyle

NYR: Dominic Moore (10) Assisted by Marty St. Louis

WSH: Alex Ovechkin (53) (PPG) Assisted by John Carlson & Nicklas Backstrom

NYR: Jesper Fast (6) (ENG) Assisted by Dominic Moore & Tanner Glass

WSH: Stanislav Galiev (1) Assisted by Michael Latta & Brooks Orpik

Team Stats                              NYR                              WSH

Shots on Goal                         34                                  24

Power Play                              1 for 4                           1 for 1

Hits                                         14                                  36

Giveaways                              8                                    11

Takeaways                             6                                    6

Face Off Wins                         21                                  31

Blocked Shots                         17                                  12

Goalie Stats:

Braden Holtby: 30 Saves on 33 Shots for a SV% of .909

Henrik Lundqvist: 22 Saves on 24 Shots for a SV% of .917

3 Stars of the Game:

3^rd Star: Alex Ovechkin: 1 Goal

2^nd Star: Marty St. Louis: 2 Assists

1^st Star: Kevin Hayes: 1 Goal and 1 Assist

Broadway Bits:

The 2014-15 New York Rangers set two all-time team records in their last game against the Caps. They gained their 53^rd victory of the season and they gained their 113^th point for the season. Both of these records break the previous records of the 1993-94 Stanley Cup Champions.

Those two accomplishments in 1993-94 took place in an 84 game regular season, these two records were accomplished in an 82 game regular season.

The Blueshirt victory in Washington, was their 28^th of the season

This season, five different Ranger defenseman recorded at least 20 points: Ryan McDonagh, Kevin Klein, Dan Girardi, Marc Staal and Dan Boyle; for the first time since 1984-85

The Rangers scored four goals in a game for the 33^rd time this season. This includes team goals in a Shootout. This is the first time the Rangers have accomplished this since 2005-06. Their record in these 33 games was 31-1-1

And in the last 120 regular season games in which they scored at least four goals, the Rangers are an incredible 117-1-2

For the second consecutive season, the Rangers have ten different players score at least ten goals. They are: Rick Nash, Marty St. Louis, Chris Kreider, Derick Brassard, Carl Hagelin, Derek Stepan, Kevin Hayes, Mats Zuccarello, J. T. Miller and Dominic Moore.

The Rangers have outscored their opponents in the first period 84-54 for a first period goal differential of plus 30

The Rangers posted a record of 41-6-3 when scoring the first goal of the game and posted a record of 29-2-3 when leading after the first period.

The Blueshirts also posted a record of 36-0-1 when leading after two periods

The Rangers finished the season ranked sixth in the NHL on the Penalty Kill

Kevin Hayes: had two points: one goal and one assist against the Caps. He also had two shots on goal and posted a plus one rating in 16:51 of ice time. Kevin finished his first season in the NHL with 17 Goals and 28 Assists

Marty St. Louis: had two assists, five shots on goal and posted a plus two rating in 17:00 of ice time

Henrik Lundqvist notched his 30^th victory of the season. He now has won 30 games in nine of his first ten seasons in the NHL with the Rangers. The only season he did not reach the 30 win mark was the lockout season.

In his last six games of the season, Hank is 5-1-0 with a GAA of 1.99 and a SV% of .933.

Derick Brassard: had a power play goal and six shots on goal. His goal against the Caps, was the 100^th of his NHL career.

Dominic Moore had two points: a Goal and an assist, and posted a plus two rating

Jesper Fast had a goal and two shots on goal in 12:30 of ice time

Ryan McDonagh: had an assist, three shots on goal and posted a plus two rating in a team high 22:22 of ice time

Captain Ryan led all Ranger defenseman in Assists (25), points (33), power play assists (9), power play points (12), shorthanded assists (3), shorthanded points (3) and shots on goal (148). He also led the team in average ice time with 23:07

Dan Boyle had an assist, and two blocks in 21:51 of ice time

Tanner Glass had an assist, led the Rangers with three hits, two blocked shots and posted a plus one rating in 11:41 of ice time

Keith Yandle had three shots on goal in 22:05 of ice time

Dan Girardi: had three shots on goal, two blocks, two hits and posted a plus two rating in 19:24 of ice time

The Rangers will begin their best of seven first round series against the Pittsburgh Penguins at MSG on Thursday April 16^th, 2015 at 7:00PM. Game two will be on Saturday April 18^th at 8:00PM. Then the series will travel to Pittsburgh for two games.