NHL News: Capitals Down Rangers To Take Series Lead

An outstanding shutout performance by goaltender Braden Holtby and a lone goal by Jay Beagle led the Washington Capitals to a Game 3 win on Monday night over the New York Rangers. The Capitals now lead the Eastern Conference semi-finals 2-1 in the best of seven series.

It was just the second shutout by Holtby in his playoff career and he made 30 saves to keep the Capitals in the game, including a 1 vs. 1 against Martin St. Louis less than seven minutes after Beagle had scored at the other end. The performance was impressive enough for the crowd to chant his name towards the end of the game. Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist was even taken off with less than 90 seconds left in the game for an extra forward, but Holtby was not to be beaten on the night.

"When he plays like that, we feel confidence. It doesn't matter what's going to happen, he's just going to make a save and keep us in the game," Capitals winger Alex Ovechkin told .

The first period ended goalless between the two teams thanks to excellent defensive work at both ends, but Beagle broke the deadlock less than eight minutes into the second quarter. After picking up Andre Burakovsky’s pass, Beagle shot at goal but was blocked by Lundqvist. Beagle picked up the rebound off the boards and then rounded the goal and aimed a clean backhand, which took a deflection off both defender Keith Yandle and Lundqvist and ended up in the net. It was just the third goal for Beagle in 33 career playoff games.

For Lundqvist, it was the 100^th playoff game of his career, one of only 17^th goalies in NHL history to have played that many playoff games, and he will be bitterly disappointed about the goal. "That's a tough way to lose. Especially when how good our goalie played gives us a chance,” Rangers winger Rick Nash said to ESPN.

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