Rangers' power play works but defense fails in loss

Seven-for-82. Three-for-48. Zero-for-25. Dismal numbers for the Rangers' power play leading into last night's game against the potent Washington Capitals.

That was one of the reasons that general manager Glen Sather wanted Olli Jokinen, who was acquired from Calgary on Monday.

And for a while in last night's 6-5 loss to the Capitals, the Rangers' power play busted out of its shackles, scoring four times on six attempts and providing a two-goal lead over Washington, which had won 11 straight games.

But Alex Ovechkin grabbed a loose puck and made a nifty move, putting the puck through Michal Rozsival's legs and flipping a one-handed shot that went off Henrik Lundqvist's stick, up over his shoulder and across the goal line with nine seconds left in the second period.

"Coming in [to the locker room] 5-3 or 5-4 is a big difference . . . because of a tough bounce," the Rangers' Chris Drury said. "Olli [Jokinen] tries to put it in their zone, it hits a foot and away they go."

It turned out to be a momentum-changer. The Rangers took five penalties in the third period and Tom Poti and Nicklas Backstrom scored on two of the power plays as the Rangers took their third loss in four games.

"That's one of our main points, not to take too many penalties," Ryan Callahan said, "and it came back to bite us. We played great five-on-five, but we've got to stay out of the box. We gave those guys too many chances. Our PK has been great all along, but when you take that many penalties, you're not going to be able to stop them all."

Lundqvist, who held his head in his hands for several minutes in the dressing room, said Ovechkin's goal was tough to swallow. "They don't get many shots but they find ways to score," said Lundqvist, who made 26 saves as the Rangers outshot the Caps 38-32.

"We've got to stay positive. We scored five tonight," said Jokinen, whose wrister from the right point was deflected by Callahan in front past Caps goaltender Jose Theodore to give the Rangers a 1-0 edge at 8:58 of the first. Boyd Gordon scored 10 seconds later for Washington, but Vinny Prospal, with his first of two goals in a four-point game, countered at 16:50 of the first for a 2-1 lead.

The Caps scored the next two goals but Jokinen scored his first as a Ranger on a power play at 12:19 of the second to tie it at 3. Prospal's second came on a five-on-three from the post, and Brandon Dubinsky scored on a power play at 18:48 before Ovechkin scored his league-leading 38th at even strength.

The overriding problem, coach John Tortorella said, was the nine penalties. "I thought some of them were phantom calls and some were lack of discipline," he said. "I thought we forechecked much better but we gave up too many scoring chances ourselves. We have to continue to work on defense."

Jokinen, who took three of those penalties, has been productive with the man advantage. He scored 13 power-play goals in 2002-03, 14 in 2005-06 and 18 in 2007-08.