NHL: N.Y. Rangers 4, Washington 3

WASHINGTON, April 15 (UPI) -- Brandon Dubinsky's go-ahead goal with 8:17 left in the third period Wednesday lifted the New York Rangers to a playoff-opening 4-3 victory over Washington.

The seventh-seeded Rangers built a 3-1 lead late in the second period, only to see the Capitals come back to tie it in the opening moments of the third.

After forcing his teammates to kill off a penalty when he was called for holding midway through the third, Marcus Naslund came storming out of the box and collected the puck. He slipped a pass to Dubinsky, who fired a wrist shot past Jose Theodore for the game-winner.

Theodore struggled on the opening night of the NHL playoff grind, allowing four goals on 21 shots.

That was too much for the offensive-minded Capitals to overcome. Washington superstar Alex Ovechkin recorded two assists after scoring 56 goals in the regular season to lead the league.

Henrik Lundqvist made 32 saves to get the win.

This is the second straight year the Capitals have opened the playoffs on a sour note. They lost their first three games to Philadelphia in last year's first-round series before eventually forcing a seventh game -- which Washington lost in overtime.

Scott Gomez, Nik Antropov and Naslund scored in the second period to give New York the lead. Viktor Kozlov brought Washington within a goal with 49 seconds left in the second and Alexander Semin tied it 1:42 into the third.

New York played without captain Chris Drury, who has an undisclosed injury that caused him to miss practice for four days. The second game of the series will be played in Washington Saturday.