Hurricanes hold off Capitals in Game 4, even Eastern series

RALEIGH, N.C. --Petr Mrazek made 30 saves, and the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Washington Capitals 2-1 in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference First Round at PNC Arena on Thursday.

The best-of-7 series is tied 2-2, with the home team winning each game. Game 5 is at Washington on Saturday.
"I can't say enough about our group," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "We just battled. We're giving everything we can. Our defensemen] were really solid tonight. They really held the fort down and our goaltending came up big at the end."
***[WATCH: [Capitals vs. Hurricanes Game 4 highlights | Complete series coverage]*
Warren Foegele and Teuvo Teravainen scored for the Hurricanes.
Alex Ovechkin scored, and Braden Holtby made 22 saves for the Capitals.
"It is probably a step in the right direction (from a 5-0 loss in Game 3)," Capitals forward Tom Wilson said. "I think we need every guy on all four lines, all the [defensemen], everyone together pulling in the same direction. They are working extremely hard and they are making it tough on us for sure, but if we play as a group, I am confident we will get the job done."

Teravainen's first goal of the Stanley Cup Playoffs gave Carolina a 2-1 lead with 28 seconds remaining in the second period. He took a pass from Nino Niederreiter and split between Andre Burakovsky and Brooks Orpik before scoring glove-side from the slot.
"I saw that [Niederreiter] got the puck and I was open," Teravainen said. "I felt like I had a little bit of time, so I just (took) a couple steps and I got a pretty good chance. I got pretty lucky, just closed my eyes and put it in."
Foegele scored 17 seconds into the first period to make it 1-0. Jaccob Slavin took a lead pass from Justin Williams before deking Holtby and sending a backhand pass to Foegele, who shot into an open net.
"That crowd got all of us going there," said Foegele, who has four points (three goals, one assist) in the past two games. "When you carry the puck, you can hear the crowd roar. We're believing in each other. This is a big win for our team and we've just got to keep moving forward."
Ovechkin tied it 1-1 at 10:35 of the second period with a power-play goal on a one-timer from the left circle. Washington was 0-for-11 on the power play since scoring on its first two chances in Game 1.

Capitals forward T.J. Oshie was injured after he was
pushed into the boards by Foegele
, who was penalized for boarding, with 5:08 left in the third period.
"He will not be with our team for a while. He won't be playing anytime soon," Washington coach Todd Reirden said.
Mrazek made two saves on that penalty kill, including a save on Evgeny Kuznetsov from in close, and another in the final minutes to preserve the win for Carolina.
"We're trying to play our game, do everything right, all the small details," Mrazek said. "It means a lot to us that we can go to Washington in a 2-2 series."

They said it

"You can't wait too long. We responded tonight, we didn't get a win. We need to get more desperate. Let's bring a little bit more next game and try to find a win on home ice." -- Capitals defenseman Matt Niskanen
"It's closer. We're on the right track. In the playoffs, you need everyone pulling. We just want to make sure that we keep pushing. We don't have enough right now. We know that, and that's on our group in here to keep pushing forwards and it's something that we've been able to do a lot. We're pretty confident in the fact that we're going to go home and we're going to put our best game on the ice." -- Capitals goalie Braden Holtby
"The forwards are forechecking and coming back hard, and we're trying to get pucks out quick. Everyone's playing the same right now in the playoffs. We've worked really hard the last two games. We worked hard in the first two games as well, we just didn't get the same results. We're excited. We've got to keep going Saturday." -- Hurricanes defenseman Dougie Hamilton

Need to know

Ovechkin scored his 23rd power-play goal in the playoffs to tie Joe Nieuwendyk and Brian Bellows for 24th in NHL history. … Foegele's goal 17 seconds into the game was the fastest in Hurricanes/Hartford Whalers NHL playoff history. … Hurricanes forward Jordan Martinook went awkwardly into the end boards at 12:28 of the first period and returned for two shifts at the end of the period before leaving. Brind'Amour said he aggravated a lower-body injury. … Hurricanes defenseman Calvin de Haan made his series debut after missing six games because of an upper-body injury. He had four hits in 12:21 of ice time. … The crowd of 19,202 was largest for a hockey game in PNC Arena history.

What's next

Game 5 of Eastern Conference First Round at Capital One Arena on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; NBC, SN360, SN1, TVAS)