NEW YORK -- To listen to the New York Rangers after their 5-2 victory against the Washington Capitals at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night, it would be easy to surmise they were on the losing side.

"I think we spent too much time in our zone," Rangers center Oscar Lindberg said.

"It wasn't our best game. It wasn't very pretty out there," Rangers center Derick Brassard said. "We just found a way to win."

There's some truth to those critical statements that were echoed by everyone in the Rangers' locker room; the Capitals were in control of the puck throughout, hemming the Rangers in their zone for long stretches, and had a 33-21 edge in shots.

But the Rangers (8-2-2) were nearly flawless on the counter-attack and goaltender Henrik Lundqvist turned aside 32 shots while Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby stopped a mere 16 shots.

"Maybe you're not on top of your game and maybe we had too many turnovers," Lundqvist said. "But at the same time, we've been talking the past couple of weeks about finding ways to win games. I think we did a great job of making them pay on their mistakes."

The Capitals were guilty of a monumental mistake on each of the Rangers' first four goals.

Defenseman Brooks Orpik gave away the puck behind his own net shortly before Lindberg got lost in coverage and tapped home the rebound of a shot by center Kevin Hayes to make it 1-0 Rangers at 7:59 of the first period.

After Capitals left winger Alex Ovechkin tied the score less than six minutes later, Hayes made it 2-1 with 2:14 left in the period by finishing a 2-on-1 chance that started when Capitals defenseman John Carlson became trapped in the neutral zone.

Defenseman Kevin Klein made it 3-1 thanks largely to right winger Justin Williams handcuffing Ovechkin with a drop pass in the attacking zone that resulted in yet another odd-man rush. Klein snapped a wrist shot past Holtby after accepting a perfect Brassard drop pass just 1:53 into the second period.

Then five minutes later, left winger Marcus Johansson lost the puck to right winger Mats Zuccarello along the boards, which led to Brassard making it 4-1 after his pass across the crease bounced off a sprawling Johansson and past Holtby.

The Capitals won the possession battle by a wide margin but committed enough atrocious errors to make all that work useless.

"They're a team that thrives on odd-man rush stuff and they wait for it," Holtby said. "That's their strength and if you're going to beat them, you're going to have to shut them down either by goaltending or system-wise."

"We made lots of mistakes," Ovechkin said, "and it cost us goals."

The last time the Capitals (8-3-0) were at MSG, they lost Game 7 of the conference semifinals 2-1 on an overtime goal by center Derek Stepan. Including that goal, Holtby has allowed six goals on his past 22 shots in this building.

This matchup was referred to as a measuring-stick game between two of the East's better teams. But since these teams always seem destined to meet in the postseason -- they've done so in four of the past five seasons -- this will probably be a game both teams forget long before April arrives.

"I definitely think it was a big win for us against a really good team," defenseman Dan Girardi said. "We could've had a full 60-minute game with not so much time in our own end and made some better plays with the puck, but overall I think it's a great game for us against a team that was at the top of our division."

NOTES: The Capitals scratched D Taylor Chorney, C Michael Latta and RW Stanislav Galiev. ... Capitals D Nate Schmidt played in his third straight game after he was a healthy scratch in five of the previous six games. ... Rangers LW Viktor Stalberg returned from a two-game absence due to a head injury and had an assist. He replaced RW Emerson Etem, who has one assist in three games. ... Rangers D Dylan McIlrath took the spot of D Dan Boyle. It marked just the second time McIlrath has played this season. He had one shot in 19:50.