Entering Saturday’s game between the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers much of the talk centered around the standard of officiating in the playoffs.
Rangers’ coach Alain Vigneault wasn’t happy with how things ended in Game 1 following Nicklas Backstrom’s hit on Dan Boyle. Barry Trotz told reporters on Saturday morning he didn’t feel things changed much in the postseason.
Officiating took a back seat to the goaltending performances by Braden Holtby and Henrik Lundqvist in Game 2.
Lundqvist made 30 saves back-stopping the Rangers to a 3-2 win evening the series at 1-1.
Holtby finished with 32 saves in the loss.
"(Holtby) kept us in the first. We weren’t good, we weren’t winning any races, but he’s grown as a goaltender, and he will continue to grow,” said Trotz."He’s just entering the prime of his career right now. There’s a lot of good things that he’s learned this year and he will to continue to learn.”
Holtby on coming home 1-1: “We were probably kidding ourselves if we thought this was going to be a short series.”
— Alex Prewitt (@alex_prewitt) May 2, 2015
The win snapped a six-game losing streak for the Rangers in Game 2s on home ice dating back to 1996.
Chris Kreider and Boyle gave New York a 2-0 lead after one period.
Boyle’s goal, which came with Joel Ward off for hooking, was the first power play goal allowed by the Capitals in these playoffs.
Evgeny Kuznetsov’s fourth of the playoffs got the Caps on the board in the second period.
Derick Brassard scored the eventual game-winner at 6:07 of the third.
Alex Ovechkin scored in highlight-reel fashion to pull the Caps to within one midway through the third; however, there were no last-second heroics from Washington on Saturday afternoon.
Lundqvist on final minute: “Mayhem.” Girardi: “It felt like they had 20 guys on the ice.” #NYR
— Pat Leonard (@PLeonardNYDN) May 2, 2015
“I thought they had some good looks at the end there. Hank had to come up with a couple big saves,” said Vigneault of the final minutes. “They pulled their goaltender and they were coming at us with everything they’ve got.
“Our guys were working real hard and every time we were real close to getting it out, they were finding a way to pull it back in. It was a tough last couple minutes.”
New York’s last eight playoff wins have all been by one goal.
Game 3 goes Monday night at the Verizon Center in Washington. You can catch the game at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.
