Andersen holds off Capitals early, Hurricanes turn tide for Game 3 win

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Carolina Hurricanes were unrecognizable for most of the first half of Game 3 against the Washington Capitals on Saturday.

On their heels. Giving up grade-A scoring chances. Inconsistent on the forecheck. One and done in the offensive zone. Relying way too much on goalie Frederik Andersen to bail them out.

"That's what goaltending does, it kept us in the game," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "I thought we got to it a little bit in the second half of the game, but it could have been a lot different if we're chasing it."

They weren't because Andersen kept the Capitals off the board, giving his team time to find its footing at Lenovo Center.

Once the Hurricanes did, just before the midpoint of the second period, they were relentless, and it was lights-out Washington.

The Hurricanes rolled to a 4-0 win in Game 3 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 series by doing what they do best, putting all kinds of stress on the Capitals, sustaining momentum by spending shift after shift after shift in the offensive zone.

It just took them about 27 or so minutes to figure it out.

"It just feels right," Hurricanes forward Eric Robinson said. "The whole group kind of knows which way we play and which way we have to play to be successful. You can feel it when you're rolling one shift after another, line after line, rather than just one and done."

By the time seven minutes had passed in the second period the Capitals were outshooting Carolina 12-8 and had a 29-22 advantage in total shot attempts.

But then the Hurricanes started to tilt the ice, which when they do it right can feel like an avalanche.

Eventually, Andrei Svechnikov beat Washington defenseman John Carlson to the puck off a lost face-off in the right circle and scored to give Carolina a 1-0 lead at 12:34 of the second period.

But in the five-plus minutes leading up to and including that goal the Hurricanes fired 15 shots at the net. Washington didn't have a single attempt.

"I just feel like we got the momentum, to be honest," Svechnikov said. "Had a couple of shifts in their zone and just tried to support each other on the bench and say, 'Let's go, let's go.' I felt we just got the momentum and everyone picked it up."

Jack Roslovic scored on the power play to make it 2-0 at 18:57.

In a span from 7:12 of the second period, when Sean Walker put a shot on goal, to Roslovic's goal, the Hurricanes outshot the Capitals 9-1 and had a 28-2 advantage in total shot attempts.

It was reminiscent of their dominant performance in Game 1, a 2-1 overtime win in which they outshot the Capitals 33-14 and were plus-60 in shot attempts (94-34).

"I think just getting to our game," Robinson said. "It's pretty obvious when we're not playing it, maybe trying to do something different or do too much. So we just got to our game."

Robinson opened the third with a scintillating individual effort for a goal to make it 3-0 at 3:14.

Jackson Blake put the finishing touches on a 4-0 win with a power-play goal at 16:44.

Carolina outshot the Capitals 11-6 in the third period, when it also had 26 shot attempts to Washington's 13.

"It's a realization of the way we play," Roslovic said. "We've got to clean it up a little bit, but we always seem to get back to it. If it weren't for Freddie it could have been different."

Andersen finished with 21 saves, including nine in the first period, when he had to be terrific, especially early. He stopped Tom Wilson on a breakaway at 26 seconds and Taylor Raddysh from point-blank range between the circles at 2:25.

"That might have been one of the better games he's played for us, just with the magnitude of the game, what it means, and how that impacted it the way he played," Brind'Amour said.

The Hurricanes will likely need Andersen to come up big again in Game 4 if they want to go back to Washington with a chance to win the series. That's obvious. Every team needs its goalie to play big to win, especially in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

But when the Hurricanes play like they did in the second half of Game 3, and pretty much all of Game 1, their goalie will be one of the most invested spectators in the building, watching his team attack in waves.

"Yeah, that was textbook Hurricanes hockey," Andersen said. "Long shifts in their end, making it tough on them to break out, and it's up to the next line to do the same. It's tough to change that momentum when you're in it as the defending team."