So the Rangers waited until the third period to start playing for the second straight game against the Capitals.

It was yet another four-goal surge like they had in the final 20 minutes of the loss in Washington on Sunday, but this time it was enough to secure a 5-2 win over the Capitals at the Garden on Tuesday night.

The Rangers didn’t look like a team that was ready to face the top team in its division at the start of the night. But thanks to goalie Igor Shesterkin, who put forth another resilient performance to keep his team within a goal through 40 minutes, and an awakening in the final frame, the Blueshirts were able to finish the late-game comeback this time around.

With the Capitals continuing to hound the Rangers into their defensive zone as they had all night to start the third, Artemi Panarin intercepted a pass at the blue line and sent his line off to the races. He dished to Ryan Strome, who found Kaapo Kakko at the doorstep for the tap-in at 4:10 to knot the game 2-2.

It sent a jolt throughout the Rangers lineup, maybe a reminder of what it felt like to fall short two days earlier.

Roughly 2 ½ minutes after the equalizer, Adam Fox then drove to the net and backhanded the puck past Capitals netminder Vitek Vanecek for the go-ahead goal. It extended Fox’s point streak to eight games and made him the first Rangers defenseman with 30 points in a season’s first 35 games since Brian Leetch.

Panarin capitalized on a breakaway, sprung by a long pass from Brendan Smith, for the insurance tally at 15:41 before a shorthanded empty-net goal from Pavel Buchnevich put the game further out of reach.

The Rangers were 0-10 when trailing heading into the third period prior to Tuesday’s win, which also made them the only team with a winning record over the Capitals in the East.

“It’s funny because early on in the season, we weren’t having that type of success in the third period so the tables have turned,” head coach David Quinn said. “We’ve just got to do a little bit better job of being ready when the puck drops. The last two games that hasn’t been the case. We’ve just got to be a little bit ready to go for 60 minutes and I think our guys realize that.”

Shesterkin proved to be the only thing standing between the Capitals and another five-goal game, as the rookie netminder turned aside 30 of the 32 shots he faced. He was the reason the Rangers remained competitive through a majority of the game, especially when he came up with six saves during the Capitals’ power play in the second period.

The Rangers fell behind 2-0 within the first 4:21 of the game as the surging Capitals were heavy on the forecheck from the moment the puck dropped. Washington did what it wanted, with no pushback from the Blueshirts, who were outshot 9-0 in the opening minutes.

Winners of 10 of their last 11 games coming into Tuesday’s game, the Capitals looked like a team that had no intention of slowing down. But Filip Chytil saved the Rangers from getting entirely shown up in the first period when he forced a turnover and finished on the breakaway to cut the Capitals’ lead to 2-1 at 15:36.

Chytil’s goal seemingly alerted the rest of the team that the game was still winnable. And with a sharp Shesterkin to fall back on, the Rangers were able to wait until the sleeping giant that is their offense woke up in the third.

“I was proud of the way the first period changed, because we got off to such a tough start,” Quinn said. “It’s not easy to turn the tide within a period. I thought we did a good job of that.”