Rangers give Capitals advantage as Garden wins wins streak

Brett Connolly scored the decisive goal while there was 6:24 left in the third period, and the Capitals beat the Rangers 5-3 on Saturday, breaking the Blueshirts' seven-game winning streak at the Garden.

Jimmy Vesey, Brady Skjei and Ryan Strome scored for the Rangers, who lost their second consecutive game. Kevin Hayes had two assists and Alexandar Georgiev finished with 23 saves.

Strome tied the score 3-3 at 5:30 in the final period with his first goal with the Rangers since his Edmonton acquisition on Nov. 16. Brett Howden deflected Neal Pionk's shot from the right point of his skate to Strome's right side. Strome then skated behind the net and beat Copley with a wrap.

Connolly got a pass from John Carlson at the end of the left circle and scored a quarterback pass on Georgiev for his fourth of the season.

Alex Ovechkin, Nic Dowd, Jakub Vrana and Tom Wilson also scored for the reigning Stanley Cup champion, Washington, who won his fifth consecutive record, and Carlson had three assists. Pheonix Copley, taking the place of Braden Holtby, stopped 27 shots.

Wilson added an empty net with 1:08 left for his fourth. He has collected nine points in seven games since returning from an opening suspension that has ruled him away from 16 games.

The Capitals led 1-0 with increased intensity in the second period and scored three goals while beating the Rangers 15-9.

Barely 31 seconds after Skjei doubled the Rangers' lead, Dowd kicked Carlson off the back of the Capitals in a half-second.

Vrana then tied him with a sixth goal while he was skating from the left side, cut Georgiev and beat him over the glove with a backhander at 3:33 of the end.

Ovechkin gave the advantage to the Capitals, overtaking Georgiev on the right and passing Georgiev 30 seconds from the end. It was Ovechkin's 17th goal, placing him tied with David Pastrnak of Boston and Jeff Skinner of Buffalo.

Georgiev made several interesting saves in the first nine and a half minutes of the second, including successive attempts by Vrana.

A few seconds later, Brendan Smith, back in training after two games in the form of a scratch, fired a shot past the inside edge of the right circle that bounced off the end boards and arrived at Skjei on the outer edge of the left circle. He fired between Copley's blocker and the goal post for his second goal at 9:39 to bring the score to 2-0. It was the first Rangers shot in the middle of the period.

The Rangers dominated the Capitals 12-6 in opening.

Vesey gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead less than 15 seconds after coming off the penalty spot. Kevin Hayes lifted the puck on the left side in a 2-on-1 race, cut the puck to the net and dropped the puck to Jesper Fast, who hit it on the right, and Vesey trailing placed under the expanded left cushion of Copley. for his eighth 9:12 in the match.

Ovechkin scored his 624th goal behind Jarome Iginla and Joe Sakic for 15th place on the NHL career list. Ovechkin now has 33 goals and 51 points in 54 career games against the Rangers.