Washington Capitals (3-2-0 6pts) v. Carolina Hurricanes (5-1-1 11pts)
Game Recap:
The Washington Capitals head to Raleigh for the second and final time in 12 days as they play the Carolina Hurricanes for Alex Ovechkin’s final game in the Lenovo Center to kickstart his farewell tour.
To start off the game both teams would go to the box for coincidental minors that would give us some 4-on-4 action, but neither team would make much of it. Closer to the midway point of the period, Ryan Leonard would make a fantastic play to keep the puck in the zone and make a pass, that didn’t really look like one, right onto the stick of Boone Jenner who score in his third straight game to give the Capitals the 1-0 lead.
Late in the period, Nicolas Deslauriers would take a roughing penalty to put the Capitals on the first powerplay of the game and while the Caps couldn’t do anything with the first powerplay, Andrei Svechnikov would take an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to extend the Capitals powerplay time. With the shortened two-man advantage the Capitals look to score with an Ilya Protas tally, and while the referee originally called no goal at the time, after further review initiated by the Situation Room in Toronto, the play was still called a no goal.
At the end of the first period, the Capitals would take the 1-0 lead with 1:13 of powerplay time into the intermission.
In the second period, The Capitals would open the period on the powerplay, and in the dying seconds of the man-advantage, Alex would ring one right off the post as the powerplay would expire. Moments later the Hurricanes would strike with an Andrei Svechnikov tally, but while the Capitals would argue the call and claim that Svechnikov pushed Logan Thompson’s leg into the net and challenge the goal. After reviewing the play, it was ruled that there was no goaltender interference and that the goal would stand and the Capitals would also be penalized for delay of game.
After killing the penalty, the Capitals would respond as Dylan Strome would make a beautiful pass to Justin Holl who would wrist it past Pyotr Kochetkov for his first as a Capital to retake the lead.
During the second period, the Hurricanes announced that forward Taylor Hall would not return to the game due to an upper body injury. The Capitals almost had a scare when Thompson took a stick up high, but he would remain in the game.
Late in the period, Eric Robinson would score to tie the game for the Hurricanes at two, but there would be some rough stuff that would send both Ryan Leonard and Jackson to the Blake to the penalty box for roughing. Then less than a minute late, Chychrun would take his second tipping penalty of the game to give the Hurricanes the 4-on-3 advantage. The period would end before the Hurricanes could do much with it. The Hurricanes dominated the shot department during the second period outshooting the Capitals 16-6.
Then in the third period, after starting the period killing off the Chychrun penalty, it would be mostly a stop and start period. However, Ryan Leonard would take a slashing penalty to put the Hurricanes on their fourth powerplay of the game, but the Capitals would kill it off to keep the game tied at two. Late in the period, Justin Sourdif would go to the box to give the Hurricanes their fifth consecutive powerplay, and this time the Hurricanes would make the Capitals pay as Svechnikov would score 7 seconds into the powerplay for his second of the game to give the Hurricanes the lead.
Then in the final 90 seconds of regulation, Mark Jankowski would score the empty netter after Svechnikov would get the icing waived off to give the Hurricanes the 4-2 victory over the Capitals.
Lineups:
Washington Capitals
Alex Tuch — Dylan Strome — Tom Wilson
Ilya Protas — Alaiksei Protas — Alex Ovechkin
Ryan Leonard — Boone Jenner — Jordan Kyrou
Ethan Frank — Justin Sourdif — Anthony Beauvillier
Jakob Chychrun — Timothy Liljegren
Martin Fehervary — Vincent Desharnais
Cole Hutson — Justin Holl
Logan Thompson
Charlie Lindgren
Scratched: Ivan Miroshnichenko, Dylan McIlrath
Injured: Rasmus Sandin (knee), Matt Roy (lower body), Pierre-Luc Dubois (illness)
Carolina Hurricanes
William Carrier — Sebastian Aho — Andrei Svechnikov
Taylor Hall — Logan Stankoven — Jackson Blake
Nikolaj Ehlers — Mark Jankowski — Jordan Martinook
Eric Robinson — Jesperi Kotkaniemi — Nicolas Deslauriers
Jaccob Slavin — Jalen Chatfield
K’Andre Miller — Sean Walker
Shayne Gostisbehere — Mike Reilly
Pyotr Kochetkov
Brandon Bussi
Scratched: Juuso Valimaki
Injured: Seth Jarvis (shoulder), Jordan Staal (calf)
First Period:
WAS Penalty – 3:18 – Jakob Chychrun – 2 minutes for Tripping
CAR Penalty – 3:18 – William Carrier – 2 minutes for Interference
WAS Goal – 9:26 – Boone Jenner (3) from Ryan Leonard (3)
CAR Penalty – 17:27 – Nicolas Deslauriers – 2 minutes for Roughing
CAR Penalty – 19:13 – Andrei Svechnikov – 2 minutes for Unsportsmanlike Conduct
| End of First | WAS – 1 | CAR – 0 |
| Shots | 10 | 8 |
| Faceoff Wins | 9/18 | 9/18 |
| Hits | 6 | 10 |
| Powerplay | 0/1 | N/A |
Second Period:
CAR Goal – 3:58 – Andrei Svechnikov (5) from William Carrier (6) and Sebastian Aho (6)
WAS Penalty – 3:58 – Bench (served by Ovechkin) – 2 minutes for Delay of Game (Unsuccessful Challenge)
WAS Goal – 6:39 – Justin Holl (1) from Dylan Strome (5) and Ryan Leonard (4)
WAS Penalty – 10:45 – Cole Hutson – 2 minutes for Delay of Game
CAR Goal – 18:49 – Eric Robinson (2) from Jackson Blake (7) and Sean Walker (6)
WAS Penalty – 18:49 – Ryan Leonard – 2 minutes for Roughing
CAR Penalty – 18:49 – Jackson Blake – 2 minutes for Roughing
WAS Penalty – 19:25 – Jakob Chychrun – 2 minutes for Tripping
| End of Second | WAS – 2 | CAR – 2 |
| Shots | 16 | 24 |
| Faceoff Wins | 22/40 | 18/40 |
| Hits | 11 | 17 |
| Powerplay | 0/2 | 0/2 |
Third Period:
WAS Penalty – 7:12 – Ryan Leonard – 2 minutes for Slashing
WAS Penalty – 13:49 – Justin Sourdif – 2 minutes for Tripping
CAR PPG – 13:56 – Andrei Svechnikov (6) from Nikolaj Ehlers (4)
CAR ENG – 18:33 – Mark Jankowski (5) from Andrei Svechnikov (5) and Sebastian Aho (7)
| End of Third | WAS – 2 | CAR – 4 |
| Shots | 22 | 35 |
| Faceoff Wins | 34/61 | 27/61 |
| Hits | 15 | 25 |
| Powerplay | 0/2 | 1/5 |
