The Washington Capitals will play the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Second Round.
The Capitals advanced by defeating the Montreal Canadiens 4-1 in Game 5 of the first round at Capital One Arena in Washington on Wednesday. The Hurricanes advanced by defeating the New Jersey Devils 5-4 in double overtime in Game 5 of the first round at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Tuesday.
The Capitals, who are the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and the Metropolitan Division, will have home-ice advantage against the Hurricanes, who are the No. 2 seed from the Metropolitan.
"Everyone kind of knows how they play," Washington's Dylan Strome said. "They dump a lot of pucks in. They don't let you have a lot of zone time. We're going to need to find a way to combat that. They're a great team. We've had some pretty good games with them this year, some physical games, so I expect a little bit more of what we saw in this series: kind of a physical style. But it's going to be huge to have the puck. We need the puck."
Strome led the Capitals with nine points (two goals, seven assists) in the first round. Alex Ovechkin (four goals, one assist), Tom Wilson (two goals, three assists), Connor McMichael (three goals, two assists) and Anthony Beauvillier (one goal, four assists) each had five points.
Logan Thompson went 4-1 in the first round with a 2.23 goals-against average and .923 save percentage. Charlie Lindgren replaced an injured Thompson in Washington's Game 3 loss and allowed one goal on four shots.
Andrei Svechnikov (five goals, one assist) and Sebastian Aho (three goals, five assists) led the Hurricanes in the first round. Seth Jarvis had two goals and three assists.
Frederik Andersen went 3-1 and was leading the Stanley Cup Playoffs in goals-against average (1.59) and save percentage (.936) before sustaining an injury in Game 4. He was replaced by Pyotr Kochetkov, who made 31 saves in the Game 5 win.
The Capitals went 2-2-0 against the Hurricanes this season.
“We’re going to enjoy this, for sure, first and we know them really well," Wilson said. "They play fast. They play direct hockey, predictable to each other. I’m sure our coaches will give us a good game plan and we’ll enjoy this one and then we’ll refocus and we’ll be ready to go. It’s going to be a fast, physical, competitive series again.”
Ovechkin (two goals, one assist) and Strome (one goal, two assists) led the Capitals against the Hurricanes with three points each, and six players each had two. Lindgren was 2-1-0 with a 2.68 GAA and .918 save percentage, and Thompson allowed three goals on 12 shots in 20 minutes before getting pulled in a 5-1 loss April 2.
Jarvis had five points (three goals, two assists) and Jackson Blake scored three goals to lead the Hurricanes against the Capitals. Aho and Brent Burns each had three assists and Dmitry Orlov and Stankoven scored two goals apiece.
Andersen was 1-0-1 with a 2.41 GAA and .898 save percentage in two games. Kochetkov was 1-1-0 with a 2.57 GAA and .884 save percentage.
The Hurricanes and Capitals have played once in the postseason, with Carolina winning in seven games in the 2019 first round.
