Caps Overcome Canes in Shootout, 4-3

Back in the days of the Southeast Division, games between the Capitals and the Carolina Hurricanes were rarely as riveting and intense as Friday night's tilt in Raleigh between the two rivals, now both denizens of the Metropolitan Division. From opening puck drop, the game was wild, highly competitive, hard fought, fast paced and intense. When all the skate shavings settled, the Caps got out of town with two points in a 4-3 shootout triumph.

Held without as much as a shot attempt for the game's first 40 minutes, Caps captain Alex Ovechkin tied the game with a power-play goal with 5:04 remaining in regulation and won it for a depleted Caps team in the shootout, as the lone goal scorer in the skills competition.
"Listen, he wants it on his stick," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "He doesn't want to be on the bench, he wants to be out there and making the difference. His release is something, and he's a big-time player."
A night after the Caps scored some gift goals on fortuitous bounces in a 7-2 win over Columbus, they were nearly victimized early by a bad bounce against them. Just over a minute into the game, a Carolina dump in took a crazy carom off a stanchion and bounded right to the tape of Nino Niederreiter in the left circle as Caps goalie Ilya Samsonov was caught behind the cage anticipating a touch. But the Carolina winger unwisely opted to wind up and crank a one-timer, which missed the empty net.
Carolina drew first blood anyway, taking a 1-0 lead on a Seth Jarvis goal from the slot at 5:17 of the first period.
Just over two minutes later, the Caps answered when Evgeny Kuznetsov sniped a shot past Canes goalie Antti Raanta from virtually no angle. Kuznetsov's shot originated from the area between the goal line and the bottom of the circle on the left side, and he stuck it in a tea cup between Raanta's bucket and the near post, tying the game at 1-1 at 7:32. It was a stealth shot, and many in the building didn't even realize the puck had gone in the net.
Shortly after the midpoint of the opening period, the Caps took their first lead of the night. Connor McMichael carried down the right side and into Carolina ice with speed, curling off way down below the goal to hit a late-arriving John Carlson. From the middle of the right circle, Carlson wound up and drilled a one-timer past Raanta to lift the Caps into a 2-1 lead at 10:45.
Two sets of coincidental minors resulted in four minutes' worth of 4-on-4 hockey in the back half of the first, and Carolina went on the game's first power play with 2.2 seconds left in the first when McMichael was deemed guilty of hi-sticking Jaccob Slavin.
Washington killed that penalty without incident, and for a brief time just ahead of the five-minute mark of the middle frame, it appeared as though Daniel Sprong had put the Caps up by a pair. But video review showed Sprong's shot actually hit the goalpost.
Soon after that near miss, the Canes pulled even on a forechecking goal from Vincent Trocheck. Coming out of a television timeout, Washington won a draw in its own end but was unable to exit the zone cleanly under the swarm of the Carolina forecheck. Ethan Bear pushed the puck to Trocheck in the slot, and he fired it home at 7:06, squaring the score at 2-2.
Washington wasn't able to alter the score with its first power play of the game in the middle of the second, and Samsonov made a dazzling left pad stop on Jesperi Kotkaniemi soon afterwards, keeping the score even.
In the first 34 minutes of playing time, Carolina committed each of the game's first five icing violations. But Washington got sloppy in that regard at the tail end of the second, and it cost the Caps in the waning seconds.
Four times in a span of just over four minutes, the Caps iced it. All four times, Carolina won the ensuing draw in the offensive zone. On the first three occasions, the Caps were able to skirt trouble, exit their end and change without yielding as much as a shot on goal. But the fourth time was the charm for Carolina. The Canes put their forecheck to work and regained the lead when Jarvis found more time and space in the slot than Washington would have liked, and he scored his second of the night from there to make it 3-2 for Carolina with 12.4 seconds left in the middle period.
Playing their sixth game in six different cities and three different time zones and in a span of 11 nights - and playing without T.J. Oshie, who suffered a lower body injury in Thursday's win - the Caps lost a couple of key performers to as-of-yet undisclosed injuries in the back half of Friday's game. Center Nic Dowd left for the night late in the second, and defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk departed in obvious distress midway through the third, leaving the Caps with a short bench for the rest of the way, and as they were trying to muster the equalizer.
With 5:08 left, Garnet Hathaway drew an interference call on Trocheck. One television timeout and four seconds of playing time later, the Caps tied it. Nicklas Backstrom beat Derek Stepan on a left dot draw, and the puck came to a stop at the top of the left circle. Ovechkin crept in from the point and ripped a wrist shot past Raanta to tie it at 3-3 with 5:04 remaining.
Washington was unable to settle the outcome with several good chances and a late power play in overtime, but not to worry, kid. Samsonov denied all three Canes shots in the shootout, and Ovechkin sent the Caps home with the extra point when he beat Raanta with a backhander to the stick side.
"We weren't very good," says Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour. "But we were still in a position to win there at the end, obviously. Our goalie played good for us and kept us in the game. We capitalized on a couple of chances that we had. We didn't really generate anything, so the mere fact that we were in a position to win, we were pretty fortunate."
The win sends Washington home with a 7-0-1 record in March, and the eight-game point streak matches their longest run of the season, a 5-0-3 spree in October. In five of their last six games, the Caps have rallied from a third-period deficit to claim at least a point.
"I think we're starting to play the way we want to play," says Backstrom. "I think tonight was tough. It was like a hard-fought playoff game tonight. They came out hard and physical, and we did too. It was a tough game, but getting 11 out of 12 points [in our last six] is obviously the way we want to play."