After a big win in game one, the Washington Capitals needed to be prepared for a Rangers onslaught to start game two.

They weren’t.

Just 38 seconds into the contest the Rangers buzzed the Caps net and Chris Kreider ultimately put the biscuit past Braden Holtby after a couple of rebounds. It was an ugly start and something Coach Barry Trotz was hoping to avoid in an unfriendly early start time.

After that though, the Capitals settled down and played decently getting a great look by Alex Ovechkin on Henrik Lundqvist and a couple of others before the referees took over. Zebras Dan O’Rourke and Dan O’Halloran would call three consecutive penalties on the Caps and New York would grab a 2-0 lead after period one.

What’s upsetting is that I predicted this in my blog after game 1 and on the radio on Friday morning on WNST. Rangers coach Alain Vigneault, a noted whiner who has a history of getting his team to dive all over the ice to garner penalty calls, singled out Nicklas Backstrom’s clean hit on Dan Boyle in game one as dirty and for some reason, probably because insufferable NY Post writer Larry Brooks keeps writing about it, Ovechkin’s hit on Thomas Hickey from the Islanders series. Vigneault whined incessantly on Friday about a “standard” being set by the league on hits from behind.

Well, far be it for anyone to even fictitiously impact the NHL’s darlings, so naturally the calls were going to go the Rangers way in game two, early and often. The interference penalty on Karl Alzner in the neutral zone was an absolute joke, especially when the Rangers, who constantly interfered with the Penguins in round one, got away with a couple of those that were far worse than what Alzner supposedly did in the first eight minutes.

Shortly thereafter, “Goalie Injurer” Kreider put the Gr8 in a serious headlock in a post whistle scrum and was whistled for absolutely nothing. What a joke.

The Caps would kill off the Alzner phantom call, but then Carl Hagelin went down like he was hit by sniper fire behind the Capitals net when Joel Ward put his stick on him and power play number two arrived for New York. The Caps might have killed off their 18th straight power play of the playoffs if not for O’Halloran getting in the way of Troy Brouwer’s clear, which allowed Boyle to keep the puck in the zone and eventually score.

Tom Wilson would be called for charging Ryan McDonagh and that was actually a good call because #43 came up off of his skates before contact.

So that’s three calls for the Rangers when there should have been only one or possibly two and none for the Caps when there were at least three New York infractions.

But, when you play in New York and the media will make up whatever they can to support the crying coach in the paper, then the officials and the NHL are easily intimidated and end up against the Rangers opponents.

Starting in period two, the Capitals would dominate the majority of play. They stormed back furiously in that middle frame but only scored on a put back by Evgeny Kuznetsov after a good shot by Jason Chimera. The Caps fired 16 shots on the Rangers in that stanza, but somehow weren’t awarded a single power play.

In period three, Washington started strong and finally got their first power play when interference was called on Derrick Brassard, who instantly whined to the referees that it was a bad call. The Caps would get several good looks, but Lundqvist stood tall and then when the penalty expired the Capitals had a major defensive breakdown allowing Brassard to make it 3-1 from the doorstep.

Ovechkin would then score one of his highlight reel goals to make it 3-2. It’s interesting because the Gr8 was clearly tripped on the play and scored while falling to the ice. On replay, the referee closest to the play doesn’t even raise his arm to call the tripping infraction, so it’s a good thing the Gr8 scored because surely the Capitals would not have gotten a second straight power play.

Washington would press more in the final period, but then the Vigneault dive academy paid off again when Keith Yandle went down like he was shot from the blue seats when Brouwer’s stick hit him in the upper chest area. The intimidated zebras fell for it again calling high sticking while also failing to signal #93 for blatant embellishment. Sure Brouwer can be more careful with his stick, but that was nowhere close to being a penalty as the spear to the neck by Tanner Glass in game one on Holtby. Wasn’t a “standard” set on that play??!!

Again, what a joke, and at that point I started wondering if Oliver Stone was in the building making a movie on the Rangers.

The Caps would kill that off and not quit. For the last two minutes they put massive pressure on the Rangers, but somehow failed to get the equalizer.

New York was literally saved by the bell plus the officials, and has knotted this series up heading back to DC for games three and four.

Overall, the Caps have themselves to blame for the poor first few shifts, but Vigneault and the New York media really should take great joy in how they managed to intimidate the league and its’ officials to gain three opening frame power plays. For the game, it was four power plays to one for the Rangers. So chalk this victory up to the whine of the Rangers bench boss and the New York media.

It’s amazing Vigneault and the NY papers were allowed to get away with this given the numerous missed infractions on the Rangers in game one, to include Glass’ spearing of Holtby, Dominic Moore boarding Curtis Glencross from behind in period one (Vigneault conveniently left that one out of his “standard”), and Kreider sticking out his knee in an attempt to injure Holtby. But the NHL treats the Rangers like choir boys and gives them the “kid glove” treatment.

Frankly, it’s quite sickening, but with the league centered in New York, you can bet they’ll just keep on taking care of their “little darlings.”

So the Capitals will not only have to beat New York, but the guys in stripes too.

Notes: Shot attempts were 63-60 for New York, but they had three more power play opportunities. Shots on net were 35-32 for the Rangers…Ovechkin had 11 shots attempts, nine hits, and his goal in 19:49 of ice time…the Caps won the face off battle, 31-27. Brooks Laich went 5-1…no player on either team logged over 23 minutes. These are two clubs that play four lines and three defensive pairs nearly the entire game.