Capitals Vs. Rangers, Game 4: Noisy First Period At The Garden Ends Scoreless

The New York Rangers and Washington Capitals began Game 4 of their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series began with a bang and ended with a whimper. It’s scoreless between the two teams after one period, as New York looks to tie the series.

It was a wild and noisy start at the Garden. Yelling and chants of “Boudreau Sucks!” drowned out John Amarante’s traditional performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and those calls continued into the first period. The Rangers fans have come ready to yell tonight. You don’t ever want to challenge a bunch of hockey-mad New Yorkers, I think is the lesson to be learned here. The Washington fans have something to try and match in Game 5 Saturday.

The first penalty came on a controversial play. Sean Avey, Brandon Prust and Brian Boyle brought the puck in on a 3-on-2, Avery shot it, Neuvirth made the save, and then Boyle came crashing in on Neuvirth. The Capitals’ goaltender was appearing a bit shaky in recovering from it, but stayed in the game. Boyle went off for goaltender interference at 7:07. The Capitals were unable to get much going, aside from a wide shot by Alex Ovechkin. The Rangers killed it off pretty easily.

The Capitals returned the favor minutes later. Boyd Gordon tripped up Matt Gilroy in the offensive zone, continuing a trend started by Alex Semin earlier in the series of the Caps taking penalties while on the attack. Gordon’ tripping minor came at 9:46. The Rangers were also unable to get anything going on the man advantage, despite lots of attack time, there weren’t any quality shots on goal. One of them was blocked by Brooks Laich, which saw him limping down the runway of the arena. Marian Gaborik deked around the remaining Capitals on the ensuing rush and got a shot away, but to no avail. Laich eventually returned.

Henrik Lundqvist got bumped himself to draw a Ranger power play. Marco Sturm looked to crash the front of the net and maybe get more of Michael Sauer, instead he knocked over the Swedish netminder and took a penalty at 16:21. The Rangers’ second power play was more inept than the first, barely even posing a threat and getting called for icing once. New York is now 1-for-13 in the series on the man advantage.

Brian Boyle got himself in trouble again when he ran at Michal Neuvirth for a second time. Neuvirth was at the top of his crease, and Boyle got some push, but it was clearly an avoidable hit. Boyle got goalie interference at 18:55. With 1.3 seconds left in the period, Ovechkin took down Brandon Prust, who might’ve been headed for a breakaway had he not, but whether or not he’d have had time to execute it is debatle. Ovechkin went off for interference at 19:58. The second period will begin 4-on-4.