#CapsCanes Postgame Notebook: Late Thunder

On Friday night in Raleigh, the Carolina Hurricanes were less than four minutes away from a sweep of a home-and-home set of games against the Capitals, the first place team in the Metropolitan Division standings. Carolina was poised to gain four points on Washington in a span of two nights, but things - they fall apart.

T.J. Oshie tenaciously hounded Canes defenseman Noah Hanifin behind the Carolina cage, forcing a soft pass to a dangerous area of the ice, the slot in front of the Hurricanes' net. There were three red Carolina sweaters in the vague vicinity, but the puck went right to Washington winger Brett Connolly, who quickly swiped it past a surely stunned Cam Ward. Connolly's goal made it a 3-3 game with 3:08 to play.

Virtually everyone in the barn figured overtime would be looming, but the Caps managed to win it in regulation, manufacturing a rather incredible game-winning goal with 1.3 seconds remaining, and doing so off a face-off win in their own end of the ice with less than 20 seconds left on the clock.

Jay Beagle is routinely deployed for key draws in various areas of the ice with various linemates. Often he'll retreat to the bench once it is situationally safe to do so following the draw, but if an offensive opportunity seems to be in the offing, he'll stay on until that sequence is over.

Caps coach Barry Trotz put Beagle out with Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom to take a strong side (for Beagle) draw in the Washington zone with just over 20 seconds left. Beagle lost that draw, and the Canes generated a point shot that Caps goalie Philipp Grubauer stopped (more on that in a bit).

Beagle won the second draw, and John Carlson began the process of breaking the puck out of the Caps' zone for one last rush opportunity before overtime. Carlson sent a pass to Ovechkin along the left wing wall at the Washington line, and the Caps' captain carried into Carolina ice.

The Canes had four players back as the Caps' trio of forwards entered the zone. Ovechkin pulled up, but lost control of the puck several feet above the left circle. Carolina's Brock McGinn got to it first, but Backstrom neatly lifted McGinn's stick and swiped the puck away from him. Meanwhile, a stealthy Beagle drifted behind all four red sweaters on the weak side.

Backstrom quickly spotted Beagle lurking at the back door and put a cross-crease pass in a perfect spot for Beagle to do what Beagle does, close his eyes and issue a shot from the shaft of his stick to the back of the net.

All of those little things - the face-off win, Beagle staying on and getting lost in coverage, the zone entry, the stick-lift, the pass and the finish - in a span of just a few seconds added up to an improbable 4-3 Washington win, and a staggering heartbreak of a setback for the Hurricanes.

"It's a tough break," says Canes winger Jeff Skinner, whose third period goal gave Carolina a 3-2 lead. "A couple of miscues. I don't know - I think they capitalized, obviously, on a couple of mistakes. They make mistakes too in the game, and we didn't capitalize. It's a couple of mistakes. I think you learn from it."

According to Elias Sports Bureau, Beagle's game-winner at 19:58 is the latest third-period tie-breaking goal in Washington's franchise history. That distinction previously belonged to Alexander Semin, who scored at 19:49 of the third period in the Capitals' 3-2 win over the Hurricanes in Washington on Nov. 6, 2008.

Washington has had a tie-breaking goal that late in a playoff game. Joel Ward scored at 19:58 of the third period against the Rangers in New York on April 30, 2015 in Game 1 of the second-round Stanley Cup playoff series between the Caps and the Rangers that spring, lifting the Caps to a 2-1 victory.

The One That Got Away - In discussing his game-winning goal after Friday's game, Beagle also lamented a face-off he lost just before the sequence that created his game-winner.

"Well, I lose the first [face-off]," Beagle recounts. "So obviously they get a shot, and actually Grubi makes a good glove-hand save through traffic, too. That was actually a really good shot."

Beagle was referring to Jaccob Slavin's drive from center point that followed his face-off loss to Victor Rask at 19:39. After Grubauer gloved it down, the two sides set up for another draw on the same dot at 19:43.

"The pressure was on, obviously," says Beagle. "With 20 seconds left, I live for those draws. That's what I've always liked to take when there are those pressure situations on those draws in our zone.

"I just tried to win that second one. We kind of had a set play just to at least get it out of the zone. And then [Ovechkin] is coming down that left side and I know I've just got to crash the net as hard as I can. It kind of gets interrupted there, but Backy makes an unreal play across the crease."

Four Score - Lars Eller's first-period power-play goal tied the game at 1-1, and it also extended the bullish center's streak to four straight games with a goal, the longest scoring run of his career.

The goal was Eller's first power-play goal as a member of the Capitals, and his first in more than two years, since Nov. 1, 2015 when he scored an extra-man goal for Montreal against Winnipeg.

Score Four -Friday's game marks just the second time this season that the Caps have scored as many as four goals in one of Grubauer's 12 starts thus far in 2017-18. It turned out to be just enough offensive support to earn the Caps goaltender his first road victory of '17-18.

Grubauer is now 4-0-2 in his last seven appearances, with a shutout, a 1.33 GAA and a .957 save pct. He has surrendered just three five-on-five goals over that span, which covers 404 minutes and 46 seconds of work.

Bye Now! -Just as five of the Caps' divisional rivals - the three New York metro area teams and the two Pennsylvania teams - emerged from their bye weeks on Saturday, the Capitals started theirs. Washington is idle dark until Thursday, when it heads to New Jersey to take on the Devils, who will get back up to speed by playing two games between Saturday and Thursday.

While Washington, Columbus and Carolina will come out of the bye week and will play against teams that have been playing while they've been idle, each of those three New York area and those two Pennsylvania teams in the Metro Division will be afforded the luxury of playing an "equal footing" game coming out of the bye; they'll each get to face other teams who are also coming off their bye week.

Down On The Farm - The ECHL South Carolina Stingrays earned a 3-1 home ice win over the Atlanta Gladiators at North Charleston Coliseum on Friday night.

Tim McGauley, Joe Devin and Steven Whitney supplied the offense for South Carolina in support of the 26-save efforts of goaltender Jeff Jakaitis, who improves to 11-4-1-0 on the season.

The 22-8-3-1 Stingrays host the Orlando Solar Bears on Saturday night at NCC.

By The Numbers - Carlson led the Caps with 24:33 in ice time and four shots on goal … Ovechkin led the Caps with a dozen shot attempts … Devante Smith-Pelly led the way with seven hits … Matt Niskanen and Tom Wilson each had two blocked shots to pace Washington … Beagle won 11 of 15 draws (73%).