Washington Capitals Get Their Revenge Winning 4-3 against New York Rangers in Game 4 –NHL Play-offs
It was a rough and tough game on Wednesday when rivals, Washington and New York, faced each other in game four of the Western Conference quarterfinals series. After a scorching game three, there were a lot of scores to settle and Capitals capitalised in
a double overtime win by 4-3 against Rangers at the Madison Square Garden in New York.
"That was a fabulous hockey game, two warrior teams going at it and leaving nothing", a highly thrilled Capitals Coach Bruce Boudreau said. "This has been a h**l of a series so far. I don't anticipate anything different on Saturday".
After game three on Sunday, Boudreau made some harsh comments against the Rangers who reacted in the same way.
They both committed to settling the score in game four from which Washington came out as the better team. After criticising their rough playing tactics, the fans were yelling and screaming slogans throughout the game against Boudreau but were silenced and
shocked after Jason Chimera scored the winning goal in double OT.
Washington did what they had to do and that was to take as many shots as they possibly could.
Capitals implemented that strategy gracefully and outshout the Rangers 53-39. Away goalie, Michal Neuvirth, stopped 36 of 39 attempts while Henrik worked harder to divert 49 of 53.
Both goalies managed to lockdown the opposition in the first period, but the Rangers finally penetrated through Neuvirth in the second.
Artem Anisimov, Marian Gaborik and Brandon Dubinsky scored three consecutive goals in the middle period.
Anisimov scored his first career postseason goal in the opening five minutes while Gaborik and Dubinsky extended the lead to 3-0, seven seconds apart, both assisted by Ruslan Fedotenko.
Widening the gap to such an extent brought extreme joy to the team along with the crowd, but nobody could have suspected what was about to happen in the third period.
"We told them to never give up", Boudreau said talking about motivating his team after a hard second period. "You get one and you never know. When we got both goals quickly, we believed we were in it".
That motivational speech to his team really made the difference as Alexander Semin sparked Capitals’ comeback.
He scored unassisted, 2:47 into the third period, and was followed by Marcus Johansson who scored his first two goals of the season in the next 10 minutes to tie up the match forcing a manageable overtime. After Johansson’s tying goal the crowd froze trying
to sum up the courage that would allow them to believe what actually happened.
The first overtime remained scoreless and tied, but Jason Chimera had an opportunity in the second that he would always remember.
The puck hit his chest after a Rangers defensemen attempted to clear it, it fell down to his stick which he then fired off from the right circle and made the game-winning shot with less than eight minutes remaining.
Washington would love nothing more than to eliminate them in the first-round of the Western Conference play-offs. They have the chance to when they return home on Saturday to host the New York Rangers in game five.
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