WASHINGTON — First team in, first team on.

The Rangers were the one and only club, of the three that had a chance to sweep in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, to actually follow through with the broom after fighting for a 4-2 victory Sunday night to eliminate the Capitals in four games at Capital One Arena.

That’s just how this season has gone for the Rangers, who were always supposed to have this series in the bag and went on to pack it up quickly.

“It just means we’re ready for everything,” said goalie Igor Shesterkin, who made 23 saves in the win. “We play until the end, all 60 minutes. We help each other be better.”

Just like every other aspect of their impressive 2023-24 season thus far, the Rangers took the situation they were dealt and bent it to their whim in order to close out the team’s first four-game tear in the playoffs since 2007.

It was a take-care-of-business type of win to conclude a series in which the Rangers did just that.

The game-winning goal ultimately came off the stick of Artemi Panarin, who whipped the puck past Capitals goalie Charlie Lindgren 11 seconds into a third-period Rangers power play and subsequently whipped his stick through the air in an emphatic celebration.

This was yet another game won on the backs of the Rangers’ specialty teams.

The power play finished 3-for-4 on the night and 6-for-16 in the series, while the penalty kill was perfect for the second straight game by fending off both of the Caps’ man-advantage opportunities to finish with a 15-for-17 showing through the four games.

It was what really set the teams apart in this series and allowed the Rangers to have the upper hand in each and every game.

“The whole season has been a work to try to get ready to go into the first series and the first game, specialty teams has been really strong the entire year,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. “There was a little bit of a lull in the middle, but not that much. The power play was firing down the end of the season, penalty kill has been on point.”

It was all Washington in the second period, however, when the Capitals held the visitors to one shot on goal through the first 13:12 of the frame and spent heaps of time in the offensive zone with possession.

There was bound to be a breakthrough to knot the game at two-all and it was Hendrix Lapierre who delivered it by scoring his first ever playoff goal. But a team defensive effort paired with a clutch goal from Panarin and an empty-netter from Jack Roslovic in the final frame secured the victory.

This series felt like the end of an era for Alex Ovechkin.

The Rangers became the first team to hold the Great 8 pointless in a playoff series in his 19-year career. Ovechkin was barely a factor, often fading to the background and struggling to make an impact in any way.

The 38-year-old Ovechkin only got off six total shots on goal through four games as the Rangers kept him out of this series.

“Come here, it’s my first playoff series against Washington,” said Mika Zibanejad, who led the Rangers with seven points in the series. “It’s a building you grow up watching Ovi and [Penguins captain Sidney] Crosby play here. Just knowing how loud it is here, heard it from other guys [that] it’s a fun building to play in, it just makes it a whole lot sweeter.”