Coming into Carolina for the second of back-to-backs against one of the NHL’s top teams on Friday night at PNC Arena, the Caps knew they had their work cut out for them. To have a chance to pull a point or two, they’d need excellent goaltending, a defense as relentless as the Canes’ vaunted forecheck, and probably a few timely strikes of their own. They got all of the above, and despite doing much more surviving than thriving over the course of the evening, they were all even with Carolina, tied 2-2 in the 58th minute of the game.
Carolina’s Sebastian Aho snapped that 2-2 tie with a power-play goal at 18:09 of the third period, and Jake Guentzel’s empty-net goal in the waning seconds sealed a 4-2 Hurricanes victory, sending the Caps to a fifth straight defeat (0-4-1).
Late in that 58th minute, Caps’ defenseman Rasmus Sandin was boxed for a hooking Aho, a call that both surprised and infuriated the Capitals. The surprise was because Washington defenseman Nick Jensen was tripped in the middle of his own zone about a minute earlier, and no call was made. The infuriation came about because the Caps felt that it wasn’t a penalty to begin with.
“When [referee Corey Syvret] watches it back, he’ll see what everybody else saw,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “And he’s on the back side of that, too, so he’s guessing at that point, because you don’t have the sightline to be able to see there. And if you watch the replay, it’s actually [Caps’ goalie Darcy] Kuemper, it’s not Sandin, it’s Kuemper, and the puck is there, and he goes to swipe the puck and he gets Aho’s skates. It’s the wrong call.”
“Obviously you saw our reaction after that last call,” says Caps’ center Dylan Strome. “I felt like the puck was past the net and there were a bunch of sticks in there and he kind of trips after the puck is gone. It definitely happens so many times in a game; it’s just disappointing. They were letting a lot of things go in the third – both ways – and then with two minutes and 18 seconds left, they call that one. It’s a tough pill to swallow, obviously.”
Washington was outplayed by a wide margin analytically, but it carved out an early two goal lead on a pair of Alex Ovechkin goals in the first period, both of which came after Strome won what were rare offensive zone draws for the Caps on this night. Of the game’s 62 face-offs, only 14 were in the Washington end, only 10 of those were at even strength, and the Caps managed to win only six of them.
Ovechkin’s first goal – the 850th of his NHL career – gave the Caps a 1-0 lead at 3:31 of the first, three seconds after a left dot draw win in Carolina ice. Strome pulled it back to Trevor van Riemsdyk, and the pivot tipped van Riemsdyk’s point shot. Carolina netminder Pyotr Kochetkov made the stop, but Ovechkin buried the rebound.
With less than a minute left in the first, the Canes were whistled for an intentional offside – the shouts of “OFF, OFF, OFF!” could be heard as high up as the press box – but the Canes pursued the play deeper in Washington ice until the whistle blew and the call was made. Strome won that draw on the right dot, pulling it back to John Carlson. Carlson put a shot toward the net, and Ovechkin tipped the waist high shot past Kochetkov for a 2-0 Washington lead at 19:11.
“I felt like ever since we scored [Ovechkin’s] second goal – when they did the [intentional] offside – I felt like their bench was really in the refs’ ear,” recounts Strome. “They were talking to them quite often, and you felt like the calls were going to swing their way.”
Despite being outshot 18-6 and out-attempted 25-9 at 5-on-5, the Caps went to the room with a 2-0 lead after the first.
Midway through the second, Kochetkov made a pair of dazzling stops on the same shift, thwarting Tom Wilson’s breakaway bid and denying Connor McMichael in a 1-on-1 situation from the slot. Those saves loomed larger less than a minute later.
Making his first start in two weeks, Kuemper was excellent. Carolina finally solved him on its 30th shot on net of the night, a nifty Guentzel chip shot of a rolling puck under the bar, following an odd sort of “bloop stretch pass” to spring him into the zone with a step. That goal cut the Caps’ lead to 2-1 at 14:30 of the second.
In the third, the Caps managed a bit more presence in the offensive zone, and when Ivan Miroshnichenko drew an interference call just ahead of the midpoint of the frame, the Caps went on their third power play of the game. But not only were they not able to add to their one-goal lead, they lost the last 14 seconds of the advantage when Sonny Milano was sent off for interference.
Soon after the brief 4-on-4 session expired, Carolina’s Martin Necas tied the game with a power-play goal at 11:40.
Kochetkov made one more excellent stop on Ovechkin late, and Strome’s desperate attempt to will the rebound into a vacant area of the net went just wide, in what turned out to be Washington’s last, best chance at securing a point or two.
“We were playing great,” says Canes’ coach Rod Brind’Amour. “A couple of bad breaks is what really happened. Whether we won the game or not, I liked the way we were going about our business, for the most part.
“It’s not necessarily how you draw it up, but I thought it was a solid 60 minutes.”
The game didn’t play out how the Capitals would have drawn it up, either, but they did what they had to do to put themselves in position to get a point or two, only to be denied by something beyond their control. Given the circumstances of the game, the travel, the opponent, Kuemper’s performance – which was supported by 19 blocked shots – and the time growing short on the season, their frustration at the outcome is easily understood.
“We battled hard,” says Wilson. “Guys were giving it their all, that’s why it hurts at the end when some stuff outside of our control comes into the game. It’s tough, but you see the care in this room and you see the pride. Obviously, they shot a lot of pucks at the net, and guys were sacrificing, guys were trying their best, and just a couple of unfortunate things at the end of the game, and we can’t push it to overtime. It’s a crappy feeling.”
