Zibanejad, Trocheck lift Rangers past Capitals in Game 2 win

NEW YORK -- Vincent Trocheck and Mika Zibanejad each had a goal and an assist, and the New York Rangers defeated the Washington Capitals 4-3 in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference First Round at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday.

New York leads the best-of-7 series 2-0.

Jack Roslovic and K'Andre Miller scored, and Alexis Lafreniere and Erik Gustafsson each had two assists for the Rangers, who are the No. 1 seed in the Metropolitan Division. Igor Shesterkin made 22 saves.

"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."

Tom Wilson had a goal and an assist, and Dylan Strome scored for the Capitals, who are the second wild card from the East. Charlie Lindgren made 23 saves.

Game 3 is in Washington on Friday.

"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 (a 4-1 loss in Game 1). 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."

Connor McMichael gave Washington a 1-0 lead 5:09 into the first period, scoring from in close off a loose puck for his first NHL playoff goal.

"I think it was one our big keys to the game coming out strong and setting the tone early, so it was nice to get an early goal," McMichael said. "That was how we wanted to start, but, obviously, they came back with a couple goals in the first. So, just dial that in a little bit and I think we'll be good."

Trocheck tied it 1-1 at 7:56 by deflecting a pass from Gustafsson past Lindgren.

"We were expecting them to come out hard," Rangers captain 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."

Zibanejad gave the Rangers a 2-1 lead with a power-play goal at 14:28, scoring with a shot from the right circle that deflected off Capitals defenseman Alexander Alexeyev.

"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."

Strome tied it 2-2 at 4:14 of the second period, tipping in a pass from Wilson on a power play.

Roslovic put New York back in front 3-2 with a power-play goal at 12:26, scoring on a snap shot from the right circle. It was his first career playoff goal in 22 games.

"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."

Miller scored a short-handed goal to extend it to 4-2 at 16:52 after Zibanejad forced a turnover by Ovechkin in the neutral zone.

"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."

The Rangers have eight goals in the series scored by eight different players.

"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."

Wilson cut it to 4-3 on a power play at 11:45 of the third period.

"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."

NOTES: Capitals defenseman Lucas Johansen made his NHL playoff debut with Vincent Iorio out with a lower-body injury. He had one shot on goal in 11:56 of ice time. Johansen has played nine NHL regular-season games. … Ovechkin had one shot on goal in 19:13 after not having one in Game 1. … The Rangers were 2-for-6 on the power play. … New York is 11-4 when taking a 2-0 lead in a best-of-7 series but lost in seven games in the first round last season after leading 2-0 against the New Jersey Devils in the opening round.