Stu Bickel's pass was intercepted by Joel Ward at the blue line and he raced with the puck up ice. He sent a pass to the middle of the New York zone to Keith Aucoin, who quickly returned it to Ward. Without any hesitation, Ward moved the puck to his right to Knuble, who scored his second of the playoffs into the right side of the net.

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A bigger mistake directly led to Washington's second goal 4:54 later. Shortly after Rangers rookie sensation Chris Kreider was stopped on a breakaway attempt when he left the penalty box, Washington doubled its lead.

Lundqvist went behind his net to play the puck, but gave it up when pressured by Chimera. Chimera, who scored the Capitals' lone goal in Game 1, pushed the puck in front to Matt Hendricks, who tried to score into the vacated net with his back turned to it.

Rangers defenseman Anton Stralman dove in the crease to try to block the shot, and was hit in the mouth with a stick.

The puck trickled to the outside of the right post, but was banked in by Chimera off the skate of New York defenseman Ryan McDonagh to make it 2-0. Outside of New York's 2-0 loss to Ottawa in Game 5 of the first round when the Senators scored a late empty-net goal, the Rangers hadn't trailed by more than one goal in these playoffs.

Thanks to Richards' goal with 42.4 seconds left in the first period, that deficit didn't last long. Del Zotto made a pass from the left point down to the lower right circle to Marian Gaborik, who patiently waited and then quickly made a pass left to Richards, who scored his fourth of the playoffs into the open left side before Holtby could get across to cover it.

Neither team could score in the second period, when the Rangers held an 8-6 shots advantage after they were outshot 12-10 in the first. New York nearly tied the game less than 5 minutes into the second when a crisp passing play between Marc Staal and Artem Anisimov got Mike Rupp free in front of Holtby.

Rupp shifted from forehand to backhand and put a shot on goal that Holtby smothered.

The Capitals had a golden chance, too, when a shot by Ovechkin trickled behind Lundqvist and rolled on its edge across the crease. Lundqvist fell back on it as players from both teams converged on him.