What it means: Washington's John Carlson pulled the Capitals within one goal on a deflected slapshot goal with less than three minutes to play, but the Rangers held on 3-2 to knock off their third Eastern Conference opponent in four days. Henrik Lundqvist made 24 saves to collect back-to-back wins for the second time this season as the Rangers improved to 36-13-5 with a league-leading 77 points, pending the Detroit-Philly game tonight.

Close call: Top-pair defenseman Ryan McDonagh had to be helped toward the bench after giving the Rangers a 2-1 lead at 13:21 of the second. McDonagh made a nice move at the left circle to gain an open shooting lane and beat Caps goaltender Michal Neuvirth for his fifth goal of the season, but crumpled to the ice immediately after. The 22-year-old appeared to be nursing a left leg injury, although he returned for his next penalty-killing shift and remained in the game with no incident.

Been a while: With five seconds remaining on the Capitals power-play, gritty forward Brandon Prust scored a short-handed goal to extend the Rangers's lead 3-1 in the third period. Prust, who last recorded a goal October 20, snapped a 48-game goalless skid with his third-period marker at 6:26. Prust tallied two goals in the first five games this season before a drought that endured for almost four months. The 27-year-old grinder finished third in the league last season with five shorthanded goals.

Captain Clutch: Scoring his fifth goal in three games, Rangers captain Ryan Callahan gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead at 11:01 of the first. Callahan, who recorded his second career hat trick in the team’s 5-2 win over the Flyers Saturday, flipped an off-balance backhander past Neuvirth for his 22nd goal of the season.

Surprise starter: Although Tomas Vokoun led the Capitals onto the ice for pre-game warm-ups Sunday – usually a sure-fire indication of a team’ starting goaltender – it was Neuvirth who received the nod in net, his first start since February 1.

Fed-ex: Ruslan Fedotenko missed his second straight game with an undisclosed injury, assumed to be a concussion. The veteran winger sustained the injury on a third-period hit from Tampa Bay’s Dominic Moore in the team’s 4-3 overtime win Thursday. Moore was fined $2,500 for the hit, the maximum allowed per the NHL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. With Fedotenko out, defenseman Stu Bickel played his second game at the forward position. Bickel skated on the team’s fourth line with Mike Rupp and center John Mitchell.

Up Next: Rangers at Bruins, Tuesday at 7 p.m.