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The New York Rangers started the new calendar year with a much-needed win. Now they’ll look to keep it going when they visit the Washington Capitals on Saturday afternoon.

The Rangers snapped a four-game losing streak Thursday with a 2-1 victory against the Boston Bruins, a tilt in which they held a 2-0 lead after the first period. It was the first time they were up 2-0 since Dec. 11 and the first time since Oct. 22 they had such a lead in the opening frame.

“I think this group deserves to be up in more games,” defenseman K’Andre Miller said. “We’ve played better these past three games since the (Christmas) break and maybe haven’t had the results we wanted, but I think as a group we’re going in the right direction.”

It’s been a rough six weeks for the team. New York is 5-15-0 in its past 20 games and hasn’t won consecutive contests since winning three straight from Nov. 14-19. They were 12-4-1 at the time, fourth in the Eastern Conference and just two points out of top spot. As of Friday afternoon, they were 14th in the conference, two points out of the basement.

The slide began the next game, the first of five straight losses and one of three runs of at least three consecutive losses. Then, on top of it all, goalie Igor Shesterkin was placed on injured reserve Tuesday with an upper-body injury.

That opens the door for veteran backup Jonathan Quick to shoulder the load in Shesterkin’s absence, which he did against Boston to put him one shy of 400 NHL career wins.

“He does a good job of settling the momentum for us and I think he did a huge job of pretty much just taking a win for us tonight,” forward Reilly Smith said. “Anyone who has a pulse feeds off that. We wouldn’t have won tonight without him.”

The Capitals enter Saturday’s game amidst a rare funk for the team, having gone 4-4-1 in their past nine games after going 11-2-1 in their previous 14, including a nine-game point streak (8-0-1) from Nov. 14-Dec. 14.

Washington has alternated wins and losses in its past six games after a 4-3 shootout loss to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday.

“I think we can get back to our game a little bit more,” forward Tom Wilson said. “At the beginning of the year, we were playing really well with the puck. But that being said, we’re finding ways to win, which is the most important part through the dog days of the season, when it gets to December, January, and February. You’ve just got to keep collecting wins.”

Alex Ovechkin continues to inch closer to Wayne Gretzky’s NHL scoring record, adding another to his tally on Thursday. He’s scored three in four games since returning from a fractured left fibula injury, moving within 24 of breaking the all-time record.

“When you miss so many games you just try to take short shifts, kind of play hard every game, every shift, feel the puck,” said Ovechkin, who missed 16 games.

“But sometimes those nights maybe you don’t have any opportunity to score, but at the end you get one and you feel much better.”

–Field Level Media