NHL

Capitals’ Ovechkin gets two penalties in one sequence

WASHINGTON — You’d think John Tortorella would have seen it all through his career, but the Rangers coach said he had never before seen what happened during the second period of the Blueshirts’ 4-1 victory over the Caps yesterday, in which Alexander Ovechkin was cited for two penalties on the same sequence, thus allowing the Rangers to go on a power play even after scoring a goal on the original delayed call.

“Never,” said Tortorella, whose team capitalized on Ryan Callahan’s power-play deflection for a 3-1 lead at 11:31 of the second, just 41 seconds after Brian Boyle’s goal during the delayed penalty at 10:53.

Ovechkin, who first had hooked Callahan, went to the box for holding Ryan McDonagh.

The NHL rule is for the initial faceoff following a penalty to be held in the offensive zone of the team on the power play. But the NHL rule also is for a faceoff following a goal to be held at the center dot.

The puck was dropped at center ice following Boyle’s goal/Ovechkin’s penalty.

“That’s what I was talking to the linesman about,” Tortorella said. “They’re going to need a new rule.”

* Martin Biron yielded a long soft goal to Steve Oleksy just 2:16 into the goaltender’s first start in the Rangers’ last seven games.

“You can’t print exactly what I said to myself after that, but I used a French term,” Biron said. “It shook me a little, but we took the game over almost right after that.”

Biron thereafter was resolute in shutting the door, coming up with his biggest save late in the second against Joel Ward on the left doorstep with the Rangers two men down for 31 seconds and holding a 3-1 lead.

* Matt Gilroy, a scratch the previous five games, replaced Roman Hamrlik in the lineup. … Steve Eminger played a solid 13:34 on the blue line. … Rick Nash extended his point scoring streak to six games (6-5-11) with a pair of assists. … Brad Richards completed the scoring with his second goal in two games after going scoreless the previous 15 matches.