The Cardiac Capitals Complete Unlikely Comeback In 5-4 OT Win Over The Rangers

He shoots, he scores!

The booming voice of Washington Capitals play-by-play broadcaster Joe Beninati excitedly delivered the good news.

Birthday boy Shaone Morrisonn just 59 seconds into overtime, scorched a wrist shot past the upper right shoulder of the Rangers’ goalie Henrik Lundqvist (31 saves) , sending a stunned throng of Rangers’ fans home with a brutal case of the bah humbugs.

Washington had finished the comeback from a four-goal deficit, and snatched a 5-4 OT win in pulsating fashion.

They were coming off a dreary 7-1 pummeling at the hands of their Eastern Conference rival Philadelphia Flyers, knowing another bad showing on the road would mean hell to pay in the next morning practice.

Coach Bruce Boudreau is not light on the fellows when they put up a stinker.

Instead the team most likely earned a nice Christmas day off as Jolly Old St. Bruce couldn’t wipe the smile off of his face.

Early on the Capitals could not stop the rush of Ranger shots, and found themselves in a deep hole.

Washington Capitals goalie Jose Theodore (filling in for intended starter Brent Johnson –sick) got off to a rocky start, to say the least.

He gave up three goals on five shots, forcing “Gabby” to bench him for the ailing Johnson midway through the first period.

When it appeared Johnson re-aggravated a hip injury, Boudreau reinserted the struggling Theodore in net, and much to his delight, the goalie was able to settle down.

The offense woke up at the nick of time as well.

And the comeback began in earnest for the good guys in red.

Usual suspects Alex Ovechkin (two goals) and line mate Nicklas Backstrom (three assists) lead the way for the opportunistic bunch.

Trailing 4-1 at the start of the third period, the Capitals were able to generate scoring chances with deft puck handling.

Forward Tomas Fleischmann redirected a Backstrom shot on the power play cut the New York lead 4-2.

Then, Theodore (21 saves) made the save of the night.

Less than a minute after Fleischmann’s goal, Jose stopped Nikolai Zherdev with a shoulder save.

A goal in this situation would have halted the Christmas cheer building on the Capitals’ side of the ice.

“When he came in and stopped Zherdev, you need defining moments, you need saves at the right time,” Boudreau said of Theodore.

“And that was a save at the right time.  The guys on the bench knew that we had an opportunity to come back after he made that save.”

Like clockwork, Theodore answered the call of his coach stopping 19 of 20 shots faced in the second and third periods.

Backstrom set up the Capitals third goal with a humdinger of a pass to forward Viktor Kozlov.

The puck sauntered through two Rangers defensemen, hitting Kozlov on the rush, as he banged the biscuit past Lundqvist’s glove.

Here is the point of the game where Ovechkin earned his MVP status.

He picked up a stray pass by Nigel Dawes and raced into New York’s offensive zone, leaving Lundqvist another victim of a patented Ovechkin one-timer.

The score was now tied at four, with seven minutes and 22 seconds to go in regulation.

For their part in this revamped Christmas Story, the New York Rangers jumped out to their lead with goals from Markus Nasland, Chris Drury, and two tallies from Ryan Callahan.

It was after Callahan’s score to put the Rangers up 3-0, that Coach Boudreau yanked Theodore.

Theodore looked to be caught out of position, and was reduced to being on all fours on a routine shot through the five hole.

Redemption was captured for JT as non-offensive defenseman Shane Morrisonn sent the Rangers into that harsh winter’s night, with a slap shot to the right circle on a ricochet off defenseman Dan Girardi’s leg.

“It came right back to me,” Morrisonn said. “It was on edge and I just fired hard. It was huge.”

Notes:

Injuries continue to plague the Capitals.

Missing in action were defensemen Mike Green (shoulder) and Tom Poti (groin)

Forwards Alex Semin (back) and Sergei Federov(ankle) were held out to nurse their various ailments.

Four defensemen who had started their seasons in Hershey were on the active roster for last night’s contest.

Andrew Gordon made his NHL debut for the Washington Capitals.

He logged 7:12 of ice time.