It shouldn't come as a surprise that the New York Rangers and Washington Capitals need a seventh game.

This Eastern Conference Second Round series is the fifth time the Rangers and Capitals have played in the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the past seven seasons; four of them have required a Game 7.

The numbers suggest this deciding game at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, TVA Sports) will be another close one. They also tell the story of how close these playoff series have been.

Here are some numbers that particularly stand out:

2 -- The Capitals have won more games (17) than the Rangers (15) combined over the five series. Each team has won two series.

4 -- Lead-changing goals that have been scored in the final two minutes. Two have come with less than 10 seconds remaining: Brad Richards scored a game-tying goal for the Rangers with 6.6 seconds left in the third period Game 5 in 2012; they won in overtime. Joel Ward scored a game-winning goal for the Capitals with 1.3 seconds remaining in Game 1 of this series.

5 -- From Game 1 of the Eastern Conference First Round on April 15, 2009, through Game 6 last Sunday, five players have played in each of the 32 games of the five series: Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, Capitals forwards Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom, Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi and Capitals defenseman Mike Green. Rangers defenseman Marc Staal and Capitals forward Brooks Laich were members of their respective teams but missed games because of injury.

7 -- Times overtime has been needed. Five were won in the first overtime, one went to double overtime, and one required triple overtime.

7 -- Washington has outscored New York 68-61.

14 -- Times the Capitals and Rangers have been tied at the start of the third period.

24 -- Of the 32 games, 24 have been decided by one goal, including each of the past six and 11 of the past 12.

33 -- Including Wednesday, the Rangers and Capitals will have needed 33 of a maximum possible 35 games to finish the five series. Three of the past four have gone to seven games, with the exception a 2011 Eastern Conference First Round series, which Washington won in five games.

228, 89 -- Ovechkin has 228 shot attempts in the 32 games, according to War-on-Ice.com, 14 percent of Washington's shot attempts. Girardi has blocked 89 shots, 5.5 percent of Washington's attempts.

3,135 -- The number of combined even-strength shot attempts in the five series. Washington has 1,622, the Rangers have 1,513, according to War-on-Ice.com. The Capitals have a shot-attempts percentage of 51.7.

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