Caps 1, Rangers 1
Thought New York came out harder in the first 10 minutes. Rangers got pucks in deep, dished out some big hits. Sean Avery was jawing at every Caps player he could – as usual – but especially with defenseman John Erskine. Looks like he’s found his target for the night. As for who would crack first – a question I asked on Twitter – Avery took a tripping penalty that Alex Ovechkin converted into a power-play goal. Assists on that one go to Mike Green and Tomas Fleischmann. Ovechkin scored goal No. 15 in his first game game since missing six in a row with an upper-body strain. For Fleischmann, that’s nine games in a row with at least one point, upping his career high.
Marian Gaborik had briefly tied Ovechkin, Dany Heatley (San Jose) and Anze Kopitar for the NHL goal lead. Gaborik’s tally at 1:16 gave New York a 1-0 lead. Most entertaining moment? Matt Bradley’s fight with Rangers forward Aaron Voros. Bradley is a middle weight and almost always leaves these things bleeding. No difference this time. He was cut by his helmet, I assume. But he threw some haymakers early on before Voros evened things up and then knocked Bradley down at the very end. Pretty much a draw, I’d say, and both players drew hearty applause from their teammates.
