#7 Miracle at The Garden
The date was April 20, 2011. The Washington Capitals were in the middle of a big first round series against the New York Rangers. One year after blowing a 3-1 series lead in the first round, the Caps were looking for redemption and in order to get that redemption they had to steal at least one game at Madison Square Garden.
The Caps won both games in D.C. to go up 2-0 before dropping Game 3. That set up a pivotal Game 4 that the Caps would need to win to go back to D.C. up 3-1 with a chance to actually finish the job.
The first period was scoreless but in the second the Rangers turned it on scoring three straight goals. First it was Artemi Anisimov then Marian Gaborik and finally Brandon Dubinsky to put them up 3-0.
A little storyline about this game. Then Capitals head coach Bruce Boudreau wasn’t afraid to criticize the atmosphere at The Garden, claiming the building was “not that loud”. As you can imagine, the New Yorkers didn’t respond well to that comment. As their team was up 3-0 the crowd began to chant, “Can you hear us?”.
The Caps would answer in the third period to quiet the crowd. First it was Alexander Semin to get them on the board then Marcus Johansson scored back to back goals to tie the game and force overtime.
Nobody would score in the first overtime so the game would require a second overtime. In that second overtime, Jason Chimera scored a gritty goal to give the Caps the win and stun the crowd.
“Can you hear us?”…. Um, nope.
The Caps fans responded the next game by chanting “We are louder” and the Caps went on to finish off the Rangers before getting swept by the Tampa Bay Lightning the next round.