K’Andre Miller's 3 points lead Rangers to 5-1 rout of Capitals

NEW YORK (AP) — K’Andre Miller scored two goals and added an assist to lead the New York Rangers to a 5-1 win over the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night.

Igor Shesterkin made 25 saves for New York (24-8-1), which has won consecutive games and five-out-of-six.

Alexis Lafreniere, Artemi Panarin and Braden Schneider also scored for the Rangers, and Mika Zibanejad — playing in his 800th NHL game — added two assists.

Washington fell to 17-10-5 with the loss. Anthony Mantha scored the Capitals’ lone goal, and Darcy Kuemper stopped 26 shots.

For Washington and New York, it was their first game after the NHL’s three-day holiday break. And as such, in the first period, the longtime Metropolitan Division rivals looked like two teams who were returning to game action without having practiced.

Mantha opened the scoring at 4:12 in the second period by whipping a shot from the top of the left circle which beat Shesterkin short side.

The goal was the 11th of the season for Mantha, and extended his point streak to four games.

Washington’s lead lasted for less than three minutes.

Miller tied the game 1-1 at 7:03 by lifting a backhander over Kuemper’s stick.

New York took a 2-1 lead on Panarin’s power play goal 5:05 later. The Rangers left-winger one-timed Vincent Trocheck’s feed from the left faceoff dot over Kuemper’s glove.

The Rangers finished the game 1-for-3 on the man advantage, and killed both Washington power plays. New York also outshot Washington, 31-26.

Schneider extended the lead to 3-1 just 40 seconds after Panarin’s go-ahead goal when his floater from just inside the blueline beat Kuemper stick side.

A majority of the Capitals’ scoring chances were relatively harmless, however, Shesterkin had to make a spectacular sliding save on Ivan Miroshnichenko’s tip 6:24 into the third to keep the lead at 3-1.

Miller’s second of the game stretched the advantage to 4-1 30 seconds after Shesterkin’s stop.

Lafreniere’s 10th goal of the season at 11:15 ended the scoring.

UP NEXT

Capitals: Visit the New York Islanders on Friday.

Rangers: Visits Florida on Friday.

___

AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL