Carolina Hurricanes (42-26-7 91pts) v. Washington Capitals (44-24-8 96pts)
Game Recap:
As the Washington Capitals wind down their regular season with the playoffs in the horizon, the Capitals take on prospective first round opponent Carolina Hurricanes in their first game of a back to back with them. The first half of the game would be very fast paced, but then as the period progressed the Capitals would start to break out against the Hurricanes as TJ Oshie would get his 23rd of the season to give the Capitals a 1-0 lead going into the first intermission.
For the second period, you would have another fast paced period that saw the Capitals generate some better scoring chances than they had in the first, but it would be Dougie Hamilton of the Hurricanes who would score while having an extra attacker on the ice during a delayed penalty to tie the game at one.
In the third period it would be the Capitals on the attack against the Hurricanes as the Capitals would regain their lead when Tom Wilson would feed Alex Ovechkin for a one timer to score his 49th of the season. Then it would be John Carlson tipping in a Dmitry Orlov slap pass from the point to give the Capitals a two goal lead. Then to ice the game, Nicklas Backstrom would increase the lead to three as the Capitals defeat the Hurricanes in the first game of their back to back 4-1.
Lineups:
Carolina Hurricanes:
Nino Niederreiter — Sebastian Aho — Justin Williams
Andrei Svechnikov — Jordan Staal — Teuvo Teravainen
Micheal Ferland — Lucas Wallmark — Jordan Martinook
Brock McGinn — Greg McKegg — Saku Maenalanen
Jaccob Slavin — Dougie Hamilton
Brett Pesce — Justin Faulk
Calvin de Haan — Trevor van Riemsdyk
Petr Mrazek
Curtis McElhinney
Scratched: Warren Foegele
Washington Capitals:
Alex Ovechkin — Nicklas Backstrom — Tom Wilson
Carl Hagelin — Evgeny Kuznetsov — T.J. Oshie
Jakub Vrana — Lars Eller — Brett Connolly
Andre Burakovsky — Nic Dowd — Travis Boyd
Christian Djoos — John Carlson
Dmitry Orlov — Matt Niskanen
Brooks Orpik — Nick Jensen
Braden Holtby
Pheonix Copley
Scratched: Dmitrij Jaskin, Chandler Stephenson, Jonas Siegenthaler
Injured: Michal Kempny (lower body)
First Period:
Hurricanes Penalty – 10:21 – Sebastoan Aho 2 minutes for Hooking
Capitals Goal – 16:29 – TJ Oshie (23) from Evgeny Kuznetsov (46) and Carl Hagelin (12)
End of 1st – CAR – 0 WAS – 1
Shots 10 10
Faceoffs 15 07
Hits 09 09
PP 0/0 0/1
Second Period:
Hurricanes Penalty – 8:57 – Petr Mrazek (Justin Williams) 2 minutes for Hooking
Hurricanes Goal -15:38 – Dougie Hamilton (15) from Justin Williams (27) and Nino Niederreiter (27)
End of 2nd – CAR – 1 WAS – 1
Shots 17 21
Faceoffs 26 15
Hits 14 13
PP 0/0 0/2
Third Period:
Capitals Goal – 4:31 – Alex Ovechkin (49) from Tom Wilson (17) and Evgeny Kuznetsov (47)
Capitals Goal – 11:16 – John Carlson (13) from Dmitry Orlov (25) and Evgeny Kuznetsov (48)
Capitals ENG – 17:33 – Nicklas Backstrom (19) from Alex Ovechkin (37) and John Carlson (54)
End of 3rd – CAR – 1 WAS – 4
Shots 27 28
Faceoffs 36 26
Hits 25 20
PP 0/0 0/2
Next Up:
Washington (45-24-8 98pts) @ Carolina (42-27-7 91pts)