Jim McIsaac / Getty Images

The Capitals' Eric Fehr is stopped on his scoring chance by Wade Redden, right, and goalie Henrik Lundqvist during the Rangers' Game 4 win.

Lundqvist did the rest, especially during a power play when Washington whistled four shots in on him and had several others blocked in front. New York could not get the puck out of its zone and gave up two more drives after Michal Rozsival got out of the box.

The Rangers finally iced the puck, forcing Tortorella to use his timeout to give his exhausted penalty-killers a breather.

Lundqvist’s most dramatic save came against onrushing forward Alexander Semin, who launched a rising drive that was snared at full extension by Lundqvist before the puck found the top right corner.

It brought the towel-waving crowd to its feet with thunderous chants of “Hen-rik! Hen-rik!”

The Rangers went 12:36 between shots in the second period and carried their 2-0 edge into the third.

Ovechkin turned the mood inside Madison Square Garden from celebratory to panic when he rifled a slap shot off the crossbar and into the net at 2:13 of the third period. It was the first goal of the series on the 32nd shot by Ovechkin, who led the NHL with 56 regular-season goals.

Mara gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead when he fired a shot from the left point, after Brandon Dubinsky’s faceoff win, that clipped Capitals defenseman John Erskine and bounded past Varlamov.

Notes: The Capitals overcame a 3-1 series deficit once in their history, against Philadelphia in the 1988 Patrick Division semifinals. They have never won a series after trailing 2-0. The Rangers have never lost a series after leading 3-1.

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