RALEIGH, N.C. – The Carolina Hurricanes were decent on the power play, but the visiting Washington Capitals were better, and they left PNC Arena on Friday with a 4-2 win as a result of it.
Jordan Staal and Riley Nash tallied the Hurricanes’ lone goals while goaltender Cam Ward made his first start since a 5-4 overtime loss to Edmonton on Dec. 10 and finished the game making 25 saves in the losing effort.
Carolina’s five-on-five play matched and even exceeded Washington’s energy and jump, but the Capitals scored three goals in the second period with the man-advantage that overshadowed an exceptional performance at home from the Hurricanes.
“They’ve got a potent power play,” Hurricanes coach Kirk Muller said.
“Obviously it was a big difference tonight. They’ve been good all year and we said we wanted to keep our discipline and stay out of the box. They made us pay for it. We had opportunities too, but we just fell short in tying it up.”
As the puck dropped between the two Metropolitan Division rivals who met for the third time this season, the Hurricanes controlled play for much of the first period, outshooting the Capitals 13-10 and out-chancing them even more.
Washington goaltender Philipp Grubauer, who finished with a 39-save performance, was the difference-maker in the game as he made stops on long and short-range shots all night.
“We had quality opportunities,” Muller said.
“We had breakaways, shots in close. We had enough chances to score, but he did the job and got the job done.”
As play progressed through the first period, Jordan Staal finally found the opening he needed to put the Hurricanes ahead 1-0 at the 17:12 mark.
Hurricanes defenseman Justin Faulk initiated the breakout from his zone and passed the puck towards the center line along the boards where Alexander Semin waited for it.
As Faulk’s pass slid towards him, Semin tipped the puck past three Capitals players to the streaking Staal who picked the puck at the blue line in full stride.
With Nicklas Backstrom as the closest player trailing him, Staal snapped a shot over Grubauer’s blocker to open the game’s scoring.
“Five-on-five we were all over them,” Staal said.
“We were the better team, but three power play goals – you can’t let that happen. That’s not good enough obviously and that’s how you lose games.”
Carrying the 1-0 lead over from the first period, the Hurricanes started the second on the penalty kill as Eric Staal was serving time for a high sticking penalty.
Washington needed only 41 seconds to convert on the opportunity as Backstrom, who assisted on all of the Caps goals throughout the game, held the puck at the top of the left circle before he took a shot that hit Ward square in the chest.
The rebound dropped in the crease where Washington’s Marcus Johansson picked up the puck and toe-dragged it towards the goaltender’s left post.
Ward got his pad there first and stopped the initial attempt to stuff the puck in the net, but a follow-up stab at it by the Capitals center gave him the power play goal to even the score 1-1.
As both Staals, Alexander Semin, Jeff Skinner and Nash all combined peppered Grubauer with 27 of Carolina’s total 41 shots on goal, Washington countered on Ward while waiting to take advantage of their opportunities.
Ward made saves in his end of the rink at even-strength, but the Capitals netted another power play goal just under eight minutes later to take a 2-1 lead before Nash scored his fourth goal of the season to tie it back up for the Hurricanes.
Afforded their own chance with the man-advantage, the Hurricanes worked the puck back to the point to set up a shot from Andrej Sekera that Grubauer made a pad save on.
The big rebound that he gave up allowed Nash, who waited for it at the top of the crease, more than enough time and space to deposit the puck into the net.
Both teams were tied again, 2-2, with 8:44 to play in the period.
A tripping call to Semin then gave the Capitals their fourth man-advantage opportunity of the game, and it was Backstrom who once again helped to orchestrate Washington’s third special teams goal of the period and eventual game-winner that was credited to Troy Brouwer.
Coming into the game, Carolina knew that the Caps 2nd-ranked power play unit would present problems, but they didn’t expect to finish the game being scored on in 3-of-4 penalty-killing situations.
“We did a good job of gettin’ after ‘em, gettin’ shots, and gettin’ opportunities,” Jordan Staal said.
“I don’t know how many opportunities (we had) to score goals; we didn’t bury ‘em. It was unfortunate the way our PK was, and we gotta’ be better.”
Outshooting the Capitals 13-9 in the third period, Grubauer continued to frustrate the Hurricanes until the final horn sounded.
As Ward was pulled for the extra attacker with 1:26 to play, Backstrom eventually found Alex Ovechkin open in the neutral zone to score the insurance marker to finalize the score at 4-2.
The empty-net goal gave Ovechkin his 400th career NHL goal scored, a milestone he reached with little flash or excitement.
Sure, there was cheering and clapping, but with 25 seconds left to play, a healthy portion of the 17,737 in attendance was headed to the exits.
After beating the Capitals 4-1 when the two teams last played each other on Dec. 3rd, Carolina was unable to deny Washington the timely plays it made in order to win the game.
Even though they missed an opportunity to gain two points and cut the Caps lead on them in the standings, Muller didn’t think that the loss would faze his team for long.
“Our guys have been really resilient,” Muller said.
“You’re not going to always get the outcome that you want, but we’ve been battlin’ like this for a while, pickin’ up points here and there. So I think they understand that if they stay the course, over time if you keep playin’ like that, the results are generally in your favor. We’re playin’ good hockey. We just gotta’ find ways to pick up points when you are playing well.”