In New York, the Rangers were coming off a convincing 4-1 Game 1 win over the Washington Capitals on Sunday.
On Tuesday, the Caps put up a better effort, but still lost, this time by a 4-3 count.
In Game 1, the Rangers scored four times on 5-on-5 . On Tuesday night, they hit for two power play goals, and one shorthanded strike for the win.
After the Caps took a 1-0 lead at 5:09 of the opening stanza, on a marker from Connor McMichael, the Rangers hit for a pair of goals to take a 2-1 lead into the middle frame.
“I think we make a couple mistakes, a couple bad bounces and they have skilled players, a lot of skilled players,” Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin said. “I thought we played a much better game than the first game. We all know we can play against this team. It was mistakes, a bad bounce off the boards, and we just have to stick together. It’s not going to be easy for us, and it’s not going to be easy for them as well.”
Vincent Trocheck scored at 7:56 off a tip in of a shot by Erik Gustafsson from the high slot to tie the game, 1-1. The play started off a face off won by Trocheck in the right circle.
At 14:28 of the first, Mika Zibanejad took a pass from Trocheck at the right circle and wristed home a power play strike for a 2-1 lead to the Rangers.
“We’ve been doing a good job of pressuring them on their power play,” Zibanejad said. “I think when we pressure like we do, there’s opportunities to go for it and we had some good looks and at least we got one so that was a big one.”
Alexis Lafreniere had the secondary assist, he had two helpers on the night.
Igor Shesterkin made 22 saves in the win.
Dylan Strome tied the game, 2-2, at 4:14, scoring off a power play.
“I thought we fought back well, we bounced back,” Strome said. “We feel like we’re right in this series. Obviously, they’ve got to come to our rink now and, obviously, we’ve got to find a way to win one here at some point. But I thought we battled, we worked hard and it’s disappointing to lose that way on a short-handed goal, but those are bounces sometimes that don’t go your way.”
The Rangers replied with a pair of goals in a little four minutes.
Jack Roslovic hit off a wicked wrister from the right circle, on a sharp angle, roofing the puck for a 3-2 lead to the Rangers.
“It’s great to see every single person chipped in,” Roslovic said. “The goalie made great saves, guys made good blocks, made great plays, [were] hard on the puck. It’s everything that New York Rangers hockey needs to be.”
Gustafsson set up the goal with a nifty pass across the slot to the slow circle.
The second goal of the outburst was a shorthanded strike.
Zibanejad stole the puck from Alex Ovechkin on the Caps’ side of the center line. He went into the zone and did a give and go with Chris Kreider who sent it back to Zibanejad who found K’Andre Miller coming down the slot for a another big wrister for the 4-2 lead headed to the third period.
“I think we make a couple mistakes, a couple bad bounces and they have skilled players, a lot of skilled players,” Ovechkin said. “I thought we played a much better game than the first game. We all know we can play against this team. It was mistakes, a bad bounce off the boards, and we just have to stick together. It’s not going to be easy for us, and it’s not going to be easy for them as well.”
Well, yeah, like a turnover.
“We were expecting them to come out hard,” the Rangers’ Jacob Trouba said. “They did. They got that first goal. Throughout the first period we responded pretty well … We wanted to keep building, but I thought we did a good job of weathering the storm at the start, putting our pieces together and playing more of the style of game that we want to play.”
Game 3 is in Washington, DC, on Friday.
“Mika’s been awesome for us, especially these last two games,” Miller said. “Doing a lot of different things for us on the power play, PK, 5-on-5, at the end of the game, beginning of the game. Whatever you want to say, he’s been doing it all, so he’s been really special for us and we’re really special to have him.”
Tom Wilson scored a power play goals at 11::45 to cut the Rangers’ lead to 4-3.
“It was amazing, just to kind of find the spark was great,” Roslovic said. “It’s great to kind of help the team in that way.”
That was all the Caps mustered as the Rangers defense and Shesterkin denied any further scoring. 
Charlie Lindgren made 23 saves in the loss.
“They’re a very deep team,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “There’s a reason why they won the Presidents’ Trophy. So, we know that. Having said that, they’ve got good players, and we feel like we can play right there with them.”
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