A pair of goals from Tom Wilson powered the Washington Capitals to a 6-3 victory over the New York Rangers at Capital One Arena in a New Year’s Eve matinee. With the win, Washington improves to 21-14-5 with 47 points, tying the Capitals with the Philadelphia Flyers for third place in the Metro. New York’s loss drops them to 19-18-5 with 43 points in a tightly-packed Eastern Conference scene.
Game Recap
Anthony Beauvillier opened the scoring with a shot that sailed past Rangers’ backup netminder Jonathan Quick a little more than halfway through the first period for a 1-0 Washington lead. The Capitals’ 2025 Trade Deadline addition has scored eight goals and recorded 13 points in 39 games for Spencer Carbery’s club this season.
It looked like Washington would take that one-goal advantage into the intermission, but Rangers forward Vincent Trocheck had other ideas and fired a shot past Charlie Lindgren with 40 seconds remaining in the first period to tie the game 1-1.
Wilson celebrated his selection to Team Canada for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games by scoring the second goal of the afternoon for Washington, when the 31-year-old forward notched his team-leading 20th goal of the season at 7:33 of the middle frame for a 2-1 Capitals lead. Four minutes later, Justin Sourdif slammed a rebound past Quick for a 3-1 home team advantage midway through regulation.
New York’s Adam Fox responded with a power-play goal a handful of minutes later to slice the Capitals’ lead in half at 3-2. The Rangers defender was playing his first game since suffering an upper-body injury on Nov. 29 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, which kept him out of the Rangers’ lineup for nearly a month.
Despite pressure from the Rangers in the first 10 minutes of the third period, it was the Capitals who struck next to seize control of the contest when Aliaksei Protas scored with seven minutes remaining for a 4-2 Washington lead. Wilson added his second of the game to make it 5-2 with 3:23 left in regulation.
Braden Schneider’s goal two minutes later brought the Rangers closer at 5-3, giving head coach Mike Sullivan a reason to pull the goalie with time dwindling down. Sourdif cemented the win with an empty-net goal, while the assist for Wilson added another Gordie Howe hat trick to his growing resume.
Up Next
Washington goes international for New Year’s Day with a flight to Ottawa, Canada, for a 1 p.m. contest against the Ottawa Senators tomorrow afternoon on Jan. 1, 2026. The Rangers will return home for a holiday break before a meeting with the Florida Panthers on Friday night, Jan. 2.
