NEW YORK — It is getting late in the race for the playoffs now, and there is no more time for encouraging efforts that end up in losses.
So when the Blueshirts entered the third period Tuesday against the Washington Capitals at Madison Square Garden down a goal, they simply had to find a way to win. They found one. Its name was Artemi Panarin.
Panarin created two goals in the third period and scored another as the Rangers came from behind to cool off the red hot Capitals, 5-2, snapping their losing streak at two games and keeping their playoff dreams alive for another day.
Pretty goals by Kaapo Kakko and Adam Fox pulled the Rangers out of a hole and into the lead, and then Panarin scored on a breakaway and Pavel Buchnevich scored short-handed into an empty net to close it out.
The Rangers (16-15-4) now go back on the road for two games in Buffalo Thursday and Saturday against the Sabres.
The Rangers trailed, 2-1, entering the third, but Panarin picked off a pass from Zdeno Chara at the Rangers blue line and on the ensuing rush, passed cross-ice to Ryan Strome, and a Strome centered to Kaapo Kakko for a tap-in goal that tied it at 4:10.
Panarin then helped set up Fox’s goal when he kept a loose puck from exiting the Capitals’ zone and sent a blind backhand pass to the right for the onrushing Fox, who kicked the puck up to his stick, then flicked a backhand shot up over goalie Vitek Vanecek’s shoulder for his fourth goal of the season. The goal extended Fox’s point-scoring streak to eight games. Strome’s assist on the Kakko goal extended his scoring streak to 10 games.
Panarin then scored the insurance goal at 15:41, off a home run pass from Brendan Smith.
Two straight losses over the weekend in Philadelphia and Washington had dealt a major blow to the Rangers' playoff hopes with 22 games remaining. And the Rangers understood the gravity of the situation.
"You start kind of figuring out and doing a little bit of the math of where, how many points you need to kind of keep in the playoff race,’’ Smith said before the game. "We understand how it is, and sort of everybody else. Even talking to my little brother [Vegas Golden Knights forward Reilly Smith], everybody’s doing a little bit of scoreboard-watching.’’
Igor Shesterkin started in goal for the Rangers, and, with the way the schedule is set up for the next couple of weeks, the 25-year-old Russian could be in line to start a bunch of games in a row, as the Blueshirts try to claw their way back into the playoff picture.
But things didn’t get off to a smooth start for Shesterkin. Washington took the first nine shots of the game, and scored the first two goals, one by T.J. Oshie on a power play, at 2:23 of the first period — the first power play goal by the Caps in six games against the Rangers this season — and the second by Nic Dowd, who jammed one on a goalmouth scramble, at 4:21 to make it 2-0.
But Shesterkin (30 saves) was brilliant, and kept the Rangers in the game until a too many men on the ice penalty by the Capitals at 12:29 of the period helped get them back in the game.
The Rangers didn’t score with the man advantage, but they moved the puck all over the offensive zone, and created some threatening chances, generating some important momentum. And shortly after the power play expired, Filip Chytil got the Blueshirts on the board with a brilliant individual effort, when he took the puck away from Washington defenseman Dmitry Orlov at the Rangers blue line, skated in on a breakaway, and beat Vanecek with a forehand shot at 15:36.
