NEW YORK — The Capitals got goals from three different defensemen and chased Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist for the second straight game on their way to a 5-3 victory Sunday at Madison Square Garden that forced a Game 7 in the teams’ Eastern Conference quarterfinals series. With New York coach John Tortorella serving a one-game suspension for an altercation with fans in Washington on Friday night, the Rangers fell behind early, when Milan Jurcina scored his first playoff goal at 7:09 by snapping a shot past Lundqvist’s short side. Scott Gomez knotted the score at 8:15 on a power play, but Washington defenseman Mike Green replied just over six minutes later, slamming a rebound from the right face-off circle through Lundqvist. Tom Poti expanded the lead to 3-1, taking the puck as he exited the penalty box and leading teammates David Steckel and Boyd Gordon on a three-on-one rush that ended with Poti tapping in Steckel’s cross-ice feed. The Capitals broke the game open at 9:21 of the middle period, when Viktor Kozlov took a pass from Poti and bulled his way into Lundqvist, shoveling the puck past the netminder. Alexander Ovechkin added his third goal of the series on a power play with 3:16 left, prompting New York assistant coach Jim Schoenfeld to pull his netminder at the intermission. The Rangers broke out of their listless play in the third, with goals from Ryan Callahan and Marc Staal. But Capitals rookie goaltender Simeon Varlamov continued to have the upper hand, stopping 29 shots. Varlamov has allowed just six goals in five playoff games since replacing Jose Theodore in the Washington net for Game 2 of the series. Tuesday’s Game 7 in Washington marks the second straight year the Capitals have overcome an early series deficit to go the distance. Last season, Washington defeated the Philadelphia Flyers in Games 5 and 6 of their opening-round series before losing on home ice in overtime of Game 7.
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