Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin took the blame for his team’s opening round sweep at the hands of the New York Rangers, the first time the star winger ever went scoreless in a playoff series.

“It’s always tough to lose a series. We had pretty good chances. We just didn’t score. Our line didn’t score lots of goals,” he said after a 4-2 Rangers win on Sunday night in Washington, D.C. “Blame me. I didn’t play well.”

Ovechkin, 38, played 15:26 in Game 4, his sixth-smallest amount of ice time in a playoff game. That included just 3:22 in the first period — 16 seconds less than New York Rangers rookie Matt Rempe.

Ovechkin said after Game 4 that he was healthy in the series.

The sweep marked the first time in Ovechkin’s 15 trips to the Stanley Cup playoffs that he was held without a point in a series. His five shots on goal were also a career postseason low: While Ovechkin was tied for 19th in the regular season in shots on goal (272), he failed to register a shot in Games 1 and 4 against the Rangers.

It was a rough series for Ovechkin beyond the score traditional score sheet. Washington coach Spencer Carbery said that his captain was “struggling” after their Game 2 loss to the Rangers, which included a critical Ovechkin turnover on a power play that led to a shorthanded goal that gave New York a 4-2 lead late in the second period.

Carbery hoped that home ice advantage in Games 3 and 4 might offer Ovechkin friendlier matchups, but the winger couldn’t get his offense going.

One major issue was the Capitals’ power play, which was humbled by the Rangers’ penalty kill. Washington went 0-for-8 at home in Games 3 and 4, going 2-for-17 in the series.

Ovechkin is tied for eighth all-time in postseason power-play goals (28 in 151 games).

“The power play is such a big part of it, when it’s struggling and he’s not getting opportunities,” Carbery said. “They checked him so tightly over there that every time he gets the puck, he has a half second to make a play and there’s usually a stick and some shin pads on it. I think that played a major role for him in this series.”

But the bigger issues, according to the Capitals coach, was how much energy Ovechkin had to expend just to get the team into the postseason in the final wild-card spot. Ovechkin scored 13 goals in his last 17 games of the season.

“I think that this year, leaning on him down the stretch the second half of the year, he did an incredible job finding his game,” Carbery said. “We were so scoring challenged all season long. In the second half [after the trade deadline] it was even more of a challenge. That was a lot, the second half of the year. Especially the last two weeks where every game felt like life and death for our team. I felt like that took a lot out of him physically and mentally heading into the playoffs.”

Next season will be Ovechkin’s 20th in the NHL. He’s 41 goals away from equaling Wayne Gretzky’s NHL career record total.

Throughout his record chase, Ovechkin has been adamant that he wants to play for a Capitals team that contends for the postseason and not just one trying to service his pursuit of history.

When asked if he’s worried this might be his last trip to the playoffs, Ovechkin said, “I hope I’m still going to get a couple more chances.”

The Rangers, winners of the Presidents’ Trophy for the league’s best record, advance to the second round to face the winner of the Carolina Hurricanes vs. the New York Islanders, which Carolina leads 3-1.

WASHINGTON — Artemi Panarin scored the go-ahead goal on the power play early in the third period, Igor Shesterkin made 23 saves and the New York Rangers advanced to the second round of the playoffs by finishing off a sweep of the Washington Capitals with a 4-2 victory in Game 4 on Sunday night.

Trade deadline pickup Jack Roslovic sealed it with an empty-netter with 51 seconds left, and the Rangers next will face either the Carolina Hurricanes or crosstown rival New York Islanders with a spot in the Eastern Conference finals at stake. Carolina leads that series 3-1.

They’ll get the benefit of some extra rest thanks to Panarin’s goal with 16:39 left in regulation, 11 seconds after T.J. Oshie was penalized for high-sticking Vincent Trocheck, which helped them avoid overtime or this series returning to Madison Square Garden for a Game 5 on Wednesday. The Presidents’ Trophy winners for having the best regular season in the NHL needed just four to vanquish the Capitals and become the first team to advance this spring.

It was New York’s first sweep since 2007, when they ousted the Atlanta Thrashers in the firstg round.

New York moves on thanks to another dominant performance from Trocheck, who was the best player on the ice all series. Trocheck long before drawing the crucial penalty scored on the power play and broke up a scoring chance by Alex Ovechkin, who was held off the scoresheet entirely through four games — the first time that has happened in a single postseason in the Capitals captain’s 15 trips.

But he was not Washington’s only problem, and part of the lack of offense was Shesterkin, who several times sparked chants of “Igor! Igor!” from the many Rangers fans in attendance. He turned aside Dylan Strome 14 seconds after Kaapo Kakko scored in the first minute to put them ahead and later made back-to-back saves on Tom Wilson’s point-blank chances on the doorstep.

Trocheck, Shesterkin and MVP candidate Panarin leading a victory is nothing new, but Kakko contributing made him the 11th New York player to score a goal in the series. That came after Nick Jensen turned the puck over on his first shift back from a two-week injury absence, and Kakko beat Charlie Lindgren for a goal that could boost his confidence after a rough regular season.

Lindgren, who has not lacked self-belief, couldn’t again play the hero despite stopping 19 of the 22 shots he faced. Youngsters Martin Fehervary and Hendrix Lapierre scored for Washington, a significant underdog now able to take solace in making the playoffs as a building block for the future.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Injuries have forced the Vancouver Canucks to change goalies now for a third time in their first four playoff games.

Thanks to Casey DeSmith and now Arturs Silovs winning the first postseason games of their careers, the Canucks are making history and are one victory away from the next round.

Silovs made 27 saves in his NHL playoff debut Sunday as Vancouver rallied and staggered Nashville with a 4-3 overtime victory.

A sixth-round pick in the 2019 draft, Silovs said he had a little bit of a blackout at the final horn and didn’t know who hugged him first. But with All-Star Thatcher Demko and then DeSmith both sidelined by injuries, Silovs learned Saturday he would be starting.

“It was great. My time to shine,” Silovs said.

The Canucks became only the second team in NHL history to have three different goalies win each of their first three games in a postseason. Vancouver also did it during the 2004 Western quarterfinals with Dan Cloutier in Game 1, Johan Hedberg in Game 3 and Alex Auld in Game 6.

Chicago in the 1972 quarterfinals was the only other team in NHL history with three different goalies to win a game at any point in a series. Tony Esposito won Game 1, Gary Smith took Game 3 and Gerry Desjardins was in net for Game 4.

The Canucks started Demko in a Game 1 win in the All-Star goalie’s third game back from a knee injury that sidelined him March 9. Coach Rick Tocchet announced Demko is week-to-week with an unspecified injury.

That’s when DeSmith started both Games 2 and 3, and he got his first postseason victory Friday night. DeSmith was leveled by a hit from Predators forward Michael McCarron behind the net, which earned McCarron a $2,000 fine from the NHL on Saturday. DeSmith was seen at practice Saturday.

Tocchet said DeSmith is dealing with an injury. Asked who will start in net Tuesday night for Game 5 with Vancouver having a chance to clinch a series on home ice for the first time since the 2011 Western Conference final, Tocchet said they would evaluate DeSmith’s status Monday.

“It’s next man up, so I think that’s the approach and we’ll see how it shakes out,” Tocchet said.

A native of Riga, Latvia, Silovs is 6-2-1 with a 2.62 goals against average and an .898 save percentage in the regular season. He leaned on his experience playing for Latvia in the world championships in this game.

“It was like the same atmosphere, I would say,” Silovs said. “Either they boo you or they’re for you. It’s always great to play.”

Tocchet didn’t think Silovs looked nervous, even before the game when the goalie wasn’t saying much.

“I don’t think the moment’s too big for him,” Tocchet said. “I like his demeanor. I think watching Casey and watching Demmer is something that he’s watched the last couple of years for help.”