Goal Line Report
Late Penalty Hurts Blueshirts Again in Game 4 Loss to Capitals
by Patrick Hoffman on 05/05/12 at 05:06 PM ET
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Much like it did in Game 2 at Madison Square Garden, a late penalty taken by the New York Rangers turned into the game-winning goal for the Washington Capitals in a 3-2 win in Game 4 at the Verizon Center.
This time, the culprit for the Blueshirts was Carl Hagelin. Hagelin took a two minute slashing penalty and Capitals’ defenseman Mike Green took advantage and ripped a slap shot past Rangers’ goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.
For the Rangers, this game was a tale of two different teams. On one side, the Rangers’ played like a team that would rely on its goaltender Lundqvist to make timely save after timely save as well as a team that had no offense to supply.
On the other side, the Rangers played like a club that was willing to go to the net, get goals from the dirty areas and play disciplined hockey. Unfortunately for the Rangers, neither of these teams prevailed as the series will now head back to the Garden for Game 5 tied at two games apiece.
On the bright side, the team got a great performance from Artem Anisimov. Anisimov, who had been quiet for much of these playoffs, picked-up a goal and an assist and was more than present in this hockey game.
The Rangers also managed to get another goal from Marian Gaborik. Gaborik, who seems to be waking from his scoring slumber since his overtime winner in Game 3, got a goal from in front of the net in the second period off a great feed from Anisimov.
Lundqvist once again provided the Blueshirts with solid goaltending. He was especially good in the first period when he stopped 13 of 14 Capital shots to keep the game at 1-0 Capitals heading into the second period.
Unfortunately for Lundqvist, the Capitals’ first goal of the game was one that he should have stopped. While there is no doubting that was it a good shot by Alex Ovechkin, it is one that Lundqvist should have been able to hang onto with his glove.
The team will now prepare for Monday night’s Game 5 at the Garden. Again, if this sounds all too familiar, it should because this series is once again looking a lot like the Rangers’ first round series against the Ottawa Senators.
Hopefully for the Rangers, this series will have the same result that their previous one had.
Filed in: | Goal Line Report | Permalink
Tags: 2012+stanley+cup+playoffs,
artem+anisimov,
carl+hagelin,
henrik+lundqvist,
marian+gaborik,
mike+green,
new+york+rangers,
ottawa+senators,
washington+capitals
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About Goal Line Report
Patrick has a tremendous passion for hockey. Besides covering the Rangers and the NHL for Kukla's Korner, you can also find Patrick's work over at Sportsnet.ca, The Red Light District Hockey Blog, NHL Home Ice, and Liam Maguire's Ultimate Hockey web site.
Prior to writing for the above mentioned outlets, you could find Patrick's musings at hockey web sites/outlets such as TheHockeyNews.com, TheFourthPeriod.com, Spector's Hockey, Hokeja Vestnesis, Blueshirt Bulletin, SNYRangersBlog.com and many more.
For questions, comments and hip checks, feel free to e-mail Patrick at patrickhoffman3530@gmail.com.
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