Vanecek Blanks Canes, 4-0

Making his first NHL start since Feb. 1, Caps goalie Vitek Vanecek set aside all 36 shots he faced on Thursday night at Capital One Arena, helping Washington to a 4-0 whitewashing of the Carolina Hurricanes. Thursday's victory over the Canes halted Washington's six-game regulation losing streak on home ice, the team's longest in over four decades.

The Caps won the special teams battle against Carolina, denting the League's top penalty killing outfit for two goals and keeping the Canes' power play at bay on each of their three extra-man opportunities.
"I thought it was a really strong game," says Caps coach We had a really good first period; the guys were on point and came out the right way. We got ourselves a lead and just built on it from there. [The Hurricanes] gave a really good push in the third period, but that's when we blocked some shots and Vitek made some really big saves."
Facing Carolina's staunch penalty killing unit, which entered the game with a gaudy 89.9 percent kill rate, the Caps drew a trio of penalties in the first period, including a pair that overlapped late in the period to give Washington a 5-on-3 power play for 91 seconds. For the first time this season, the Caps were able to cash in on the two-man advantage.
Washington worked the puck around the perimeter of the Carolina zone, T.J. Oshie sprawling out to recover and keep a loose puck alive, and Alex Ovechkin making a play on the right half wall to get it to Evgeny Kuznetsov. From high in the Carolina zone, Kuznetsov curled off the wall and cut to the middle of the ice. From the inside of the left circle and with Oshie screening Canes goalie Frederik Andersen, Kuznetsov whipped a wrist shot home for a 1-0 Caps lead at 18:33 of the first.
Vanecek made his biggest stop of the night early in the second, using his right pad to deny Martin Necas on a breakaway while Washington was still nursing the 1-0 lead.
As is so frequently the case, Nic Dowd's line was effective at making Carolina's top line - centered by Sebastian Aho - play in their own end of the ice. Early in the second, they got Aho off the ice for a couple minutes when he tripped Conor Sheary in the Carolina zone. Minutes after that, the Caps doubled their lead against the Aho unit.
Forechecking in Carolina ice, Sheary carried out from behind the net and made a quick exchange with Garnet Hathaway in the right circle. With Dowd providing a screen in front, Sheary hit late-arriving Martin Fehervary on the tape, and the rookie blueliner beat Aho to the slot, then beat Anderson with a shot to the stick side at 8:30 of the second.
Filling in for the injured Carl Hagelin, Sheary helped his new linemates do what they do best, neutralize the opposition's top line. Aho and linemates Teuvo Teravainen and Andrei Svechnikov entered the game with a combined total of 61 goals in 53 games this season.
"That line's been matching against the other team's top line for the whole year," says Sheary of Dowd and Hathaway. "So it's a little bit of a different role for me. But it's the same mindset for me. I've played up and down the lineup all year, and I'm just playing my game within the system and within the line.
"Tonight, I think we did a good job of shutting them down and limiting their chances, and we didn't give them anything on the power play, either. Credit to Dowder and Hath because they do it every night, but it was good to be a part of it tonight."
With Derek Stepan in the box for hooking in the offensive zone late in the middle frame, the Caps extended their lead further on Ovechkin's 33rd goal of the season. T.J. Oshie bumped the puck to John Carlson at center point, and he put it on a tee for the Caps' captain, who drilled a one-timer from just above the left circle, making it a 3-0 game at 15:05 of the second.
Carolina came out with some resolve in the third, teeing up 29 shots. Vanecek stopped 17 of them, Caps skaters got in the way of another seven, and five of them missed the mark altogether.
Late in the period, Canes defenseman Brady Skjei popped Tom Wilson with an elbow up high, and Washington went on the power play for the sixth time on the night. The Caps didn't score while Skjei was in the box, but Dmitry Orlov pumped a left-point drive past Andersen four seconds after Skjei's return to account for the 4-0 final score.
Thursday's win was the Caps' second in as many games against the Canes this season, and it was Carolina's second setback in succession; it fell 4-3 to the Red Wings in overtime on Tuesday night in Detroit and will return home to face Pittsburgh on Friday in its third game in four nights.
Asked for his thoughts on his team's performance after the game, Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour sounded like a man with a plane to catch.
"Not great," he said. "I'll leave it at that."