Washington raced the other way, as the crowd groaned at the missed chance to tie. Backstrom sent a pass from the left-wing boards to Ovechkin at the goal line. He spotted Semin in front for a quick redirect that made it 2-0 just 14 seconds after Callahan’s miss.

“It definitely changed the momentum,” Callahan said. “At the same time, the game is not over in the first period. We had to be better after that.”

Lundqvist made 36 saves and did all he could to keep the Caps at bay, kicking out his legs, sprawling on his stomach and back and diving post to post. His best stop came when he denied Tomas Fleischmann’s mini breakaway, making the save as he fell forward with 12:21 left in the second.

“It felt like they had a little more power out there,” Lundqvist said. “We had two great games on the road, but we knew it would be tougher to win this one.”

Washington pushed the lead to 3-0 with 8:31 remaining in the second when Laich cleaned up a loose puck at the right post after Semin bounced a shot off Lundqvist’s pads.

Notes: The Capitals had lost Game 3 the four previous times they trailed 2-0. They are 11-19 overall in Game 3s. ... The Rangers have dropped three straight Game 3s and are 32-43 overall.

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