The Washington Capitals had taken home ice away from the New York Rangers when they won game 1 in Madison Square Garden. They had to keep winning the home games in games 3 and 4 in to keep winning the home games to keep home ice away from the Rangers.
Both teams were able to keep their goalies hot in the first period, as neither team was able to get on the board. But the Rangers had two penalties that they needed to kill when Keith Yandle tripped Nicklas Backstrom and then later in the period when Derick Brassard was called for holding on Brooks Orpik. Henrik Lundqvist did a fine job of shutting down the Capitals, but Braden Holtby was doing a fine job of his own. It simply was going to be a matter of time before someone scored in this contest.
That's exactly what Jay Beagle did 7 minutes into the second period when after some fine passing by Andre Burakovsky and Troy Brouwer. That would be the only goal that either goalie would give up as Ludqvist shut down 21 of 22 shot attempts. But Holtby was better, stopping all 30 shot attempts to earn the shutout.
Despite pulling Lundqvist late in the third period, the Rangers still couldn't get one past Holtby. Even with Tom Wilson having a penalty early in the third period. Game 4 of the series will be on Wednesday May 6 starting at 7:30 PM Eastern time.