Rangers blow lead in brutal overtime loss to Capitals ahead of trade deadline

The Rangers are choosing to look at their final game before the trade deadline for what it was rather than what it meant for their playoff aspirations.

Though they left a point on the table in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Eastern Conference-leading Capitals on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, the Blueshirts can see themselves banding together and building on every performance as they make this final 20-game push for a postseason bid.

Tom Wilson — because who else? — denied the Rangers of what would’ve been their first three-game win streak since mid-November when he knocked in Dylan Strome’s 2-on-1 feed with 52.3 seconds left in the extra period.

Tom Wilson (43) scores the game-winning goal on Igor Shesterkin during the Rangers’ 3-2 overtime loss to the Capitals on March 5, 2025.

Washington has all but run away with the conference as one of the most dominant teams in the NHL this season, over which they have swept the Rangers in all three meetings.

Because the Senators beat the Blackhawks in overtime, Ottawa leapfrogged the Rangers into the second wild-card spot with a game in hand ahead of the teams’ second and final meeting of the regular season on Saturday.

That all may be true and relevant, but the Rangers can’t afford to be harping on the negatives right now.

“Played them in the playoffs last year,” Mika Zibanejad said of the Capitals. “There’s been a long history between the Rangers and the Caps. You go back to some of the playoff series even before I got here. Obviously, they’re a tough team. That was a good test for us as well. I think the group responded in a good way.”

The Rangers gave up their league-leading 12th goal within the first two minutes of a game Wednesday night, when Pierre-Luc Dubois put in a backhanded feed from Wilson to open the scoring just over a minute after the puck was dropped.

Artemi Panarin (10) celebrates with Alexis Lafrenière after scoring a first-period goal in the Rangers’ overtime loss to the Capitals.

Then Zac Jones, skating in his fourth straight game, showed off on both sides of the puck.

The 24-year-old defenseman first blocked a shot before dropping an outlet pass to Alexis Lafreniere to spring the Rangers the other way.

Lafreniere entered the zone and dished back out to Jones, who whipped the puck from long range for Artemi Panarin to redirect past Capitals goalie Charlie Lindgren.

While they were only able to record one shot on goal during a four-minute power play from Ethen Frank’s double minor high-sticking penalty on Brett Berard, the Rangers were humming in the offensive zone.

Sam Carrick (right) fights Brandon Duhaime during the second period of the Rangers’ overtime loss to the Capitals.

K’Andre Miller finessed a dynamic keep-in at the blue line before sending the puck back in, where Sam Carrick collected and backhanded it in to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead just over eight minutes into the second period.

“I think we’ve been physical, I think we’ve been defending well,” head coach Peter Laviolette said after the loss. “It was a tight game both ways. I think the even-strength chances were pretty tight, pretty close throughout the entire game. And they’re low as well. It’s a small margin for error out there.”

After the Rangers took the lead, that’s about when the temperature on the ice rose.

Wilson got in Matt Rempe’s face before Carrick fought with Brandon Duhaime. Martin Fehervary and Matt Roy later combined for a hit from behind on Brennan Othmann, who was shaken up on the sequence.

Igor Shesterkin makes a glove save on Pierre-Luc Dubois, one of his 23 stops, during the second period of the Rangers’ overtime loss to the Canadiens.

Newcomer Jusso Parssinen came to Othmann’s defense, dropping the gloves for just the second time in his three NHL seasons. Several of his new Rangers teammates skated to the box to give him props.

With Jones in the box for hooking in the third, however, Alex Ovechkin scored his ninth power-play goal of the season to knot the game at two-all. It moved him within 10 goals of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time scoring record.

“I feel like our group is coming together more and more,” Zibanejad said of Parssinen stepping up for Othmann. “You can tell by the way we play, I think, the way we stand up for each other. That’s a good thing. We got to keep doing that.”