Rangers turn up the offense to beat Caps

WASHINGTON -- Not sure if it was coach John Tortorella's tinkering or a collective sense of "enough!" or just the law of averages. Whatever it was, the Rangers were able to unlock their offense Friday with a four-goal second period and beat the Capitals at the Verizon Center, 6-3.

The Rangers, who had totaled one goal in their previous two games -- both losses -- got second-period tallies from Marian Gaborik, Artem Anisimov, Ruslan Fedotenko and Brian Boyle. It was the third time this season the Rangers have scored four goals in a period.

The first three gave the Rangers a 3-0 lead. The Capitals stormed back with consecutive goals by Troy Brouwer and John Carlson, but Boyle's second of the season at 16:49 gave the Rangers some breathing room. Brad Richards scored early in the third period to make it 5-2.

After Alex Ovechkin scored his first of the season at home, Fedotenko made it 6-3 with his second of the game and third of the season at 11:40.

Boyle was assisted by Carl Hagelin and John Mitchell. Tortorella wasted no time in inserting the forwards into the lineup after they were recalled from the Connecticut Whale (AHL) on Thursday.

"Throughout the whole night, we were kind of relentless," Boyle said. "We were trying to get shots through. Michie and Hags, they were doing a great job down low. It was big for us, not necessarily to score -- that was huge -- but we wanted to just have a good shift and grind and try to get some momentum back. The goal certainly felt good."

Hagelin, 23, had seven goals and six assists with the Whale. Mitchell, 26, had seven goals and seven assists. They replaced Andre Deveaux, who was suspended for three games by the NHL on Friday for Wednesday's elbow to the head of Florida's Tomas Fleischmann, and Erik Christensen, who was a healthy scratch.

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"I think they really added to our club," Tortorella said. "I felt confident with all four lines and they all contributed . . . Our whole focus was to play better away from the puck and our game will take off. For tonight, I thought we were much better."

Hagelin, a sixth-round pick in 2007, said he felt more comfortable than he expected to in his NHL debut.

"It actually seemed more like a [regular] game than I expected," he said. "I wasn't that nervous. I came into this game with a lot of confidence and tried to play my game."

A lot of good things happened. Anisimov's power-play goal and Fedotenko's even-strength tally were scored after the Rangers stole the puck from a couple of careless Capitals and made goalie Michal Neuvirth pay.

"We were pretty resilient," Boyle said. "We wanted to get the pucks in the right spots and get the forecheck going. We were taking care of the puck. We haven't played as well as we liked the last couple games, so we wanted to kind of get back to basics."