Capitals look to keep climbing, visit rookie-fueled Rangers

Suddenly the scoreboard is showing an abundance of favorable results for the Washington Capitals.

A late season surge is also helping their cause and the Capitals attempt to keep gaining ground in a crowded Eastern Conference playoff race Sunday night when they visit the New York Rangers.

Washington (39-29-9, 87 points) trailed the Boston Bruins by six points for the final wild-card spot following a 3-1 loss in Boston on March 7. Since then, the Capitals are 8-3-2 in their past 13 games and are now one point behind the Ottawa Senators for the last wild-card spot with five games left.

The Philadelphia Flyers and Detroit Red Wings also have 88 points but have a game in hand on Washington. Columbus also has 88 points and has played the same number of games as the Capitals.

The Capitals inched closer after earning a 6-2 victory over the visiting Buffalo Sabres on Saturday. They are taking the ice in New York after Detroit hosts the Minnesota Wild and Philadelphia hosts the Bruins in Sunday afternoon games.

Washington also will take the ice in New York two hours after Ottawa starts its home game with the Carolina Hurricanes.

"We can only control what we do out there for 60 minutes and we're just trying to do everything we can to stay alive and get ourselves in," Washington forward Ryan Leonard said.

On Saturday, the Capitals scored three goals in the opening period and Jakob Chychrun, Aliaksei Protas and Connor McMichael each finished with a goal and an assist.

The Rangers lost two of three meetings with the Capitals earlier this season and are playing better of late. Following a six-game losing streak (0-5-1), New York is 4-1-0 in the first five contests of a seven-game homestand.

New York has scored 19 goals over its last five games and aided the Capitals' cause by cruising to a 4-1 win over Detroit on Saturday night.

Rookie Gabe Perreault recorded his first career hat trick while first-year forward Jaroslav Chmelar also scored. The Rangers played five rookies Saturday and since March 2, New York's first-year players have 17 goals and 38 points.

"Means a lot," said Perreault, who has 10 goals in 44 games this season after appearing in five games last season. "Teammates made some nice plays, so had a couple of easy ones tonight. But it definitely feels good to get the hat trick, but most importantly, get the win."

Perreault became just the fourth Rangers rookie in the past 30 years to score a hat trick, joining Chris Kreider (2013), Derek Stepan (2010) and Jan Hlavac (2000).

"At the start, I was kind of fighting it the first couple of shifts, so I didn't necessarily think I was going to finish like that, but once we started generating chances and I got that first one and that second, you're obviously thinking about the third one," Perreault said. "Lucky enough, I was able to get out there and get the third one."