WASHINGTON -- Washington Capitals defenseman Matt Niskanen wasn't in his usual spot on the ice late in Friday night's game.

He was right where he needed to be, however.

Niskanen scored the go-ahead goal with 3:32 remaining, Tom Wilson and Nicklas Backstrom each added a goal and an assist and the Capitals defeated the New York Rangers 4-2 for their fourth straight win.

With the score tied 2-2, Alex Ovechkin fired from the point. Henrik Lundqvist made the save, but Niskanen, in front of the net with Wilson rather than at the point, poked home the rebound.

"Backstrom and Ovechkin were coming high, so I was running out of space to stand," Niskanen said. "It's a little rotation play that a lot of teams run now and we've been doing it for a couple of years. It's the first time it's worked out for me."

It was the first goal of the year for Niskanen, who missed 13 games earlier in the season with an upper-body injury.

"Nothing better than Nisky getting the winning goal," Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. "Nisky doesn't get enough credit for what he means to our hockey club. That was a big shift and he was sniffing back door and the puck came to him. That was fantastic."

Wilson, who got an assist on Niskanen's goal, gave Washington a 4-2 lead with 1:32 remaining.

Backstrom and Jay Beagle also scored for Washington (18-11-1), which has won seven of its last eight to move into a tie with Columbus atop the Metropolitan Division.

Braden Holtby stopped 27 shots for the Capitals, who finished 4-1-0 on their season-long five-game homestand. In his last six starts, Holtby is 5-1 and has stopped 96 of the last 103 shots he has faced.

Michael Grabner and Jesper Fast scored for New York (15-11-2). Lundqvist, who had won five straight, made 36 saves in the first meeting of the season between the Metropolitan Division rivals.

"I felt really sharp," said Lundqvist, who had missed New York's previous game due to an illness. "It (stinks) to give up four goals, especially two late, but overall I felt really good."

Trailing 2-1 to start the third, the Rangers got the equalizer at 9:37. On a dump-in, Paul Carey beat the Capitals to the puck behind the end line. He fed Fast, whose one-timer from the left circle beat Holtby far side. Fast has five goals in his last seven games.

"(We) were able to tie it in the third, then we've got a controlled breakout, controlled situation. We know what their control forecheck is gonna be, one of our guys doesn't do the right route, turnover and the turnover ends up in the back of our net," Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said.

The game was just 14 seconds old when Beagle took a centering pass from Devante Smith-Pelly and fired through Lundqvist's five hole for a 1-0 lead on the evening's first shot.

"We wanted to have a better start," Beagle said of the fourth line. "We started against Chicago (Wednesday) and as a line we talked about it that we wanted to start better and obviously scoring on the first shift, it doesn't get much better than that."

Washington unleashed a season-high 17 first-period shots on goal -- to nine for New York -- but the score remained 1-0 after one period.

Holtby made a huge stop on Mats Zuccarello alone in front at 1:00 of the second period.

Backstrom made it 2-0 at 11:42 of the second. Grabner's pass hit Zuccarello's skate and slid to Backstrom, who turned and fired just under the crossbar for his fifth goal of the season.

After going 21 games without a goal, Backstrom has scored in two straight.

The Rangers scored when J.T. Miller came off the boards with the puck behind the end line and fed out to Grabner, who beat Holtby stick side on a wrister with 57 seconds left in the period for his 14th goal of the season.

NOTES: Washington F Andre Burakovsky returned after missing 20 games with a broken thumb. The Capitals reassigned F Tyler Graovac to Hershey of the American Hockey League. ... Capitals F T.J. Oshie (upper-body) missed his second straight game. ... Rangers F Mika Zibanejad (concussion) missed his fourth straight game. ... With his goal, F Nicklas Backstrom is now tied for seventh with Dave Christian (193) on the Capitals' career goals list. ... New York hosts New Jersey on Saturday night.