For the first time this season, the Caps have eked out a victory in a game in which they scored less than two goals. And for the fifth time in as many tries this season, Washington has pulled two points from the back end of a back-to-back set of games. The Caps skated off with a 2-1 shootout victory over the Hurricanes in Raleigh on Sunday night, in the finale of a tough three-game road trip.
Darcy Kuemper stopped 28 of 29 shots during the 65 minutes of actual hockey, and he thwarted all three Carolina shootout bids to claim his seventh win of the second, and his second in as many Sunday nights. Evgeny Kuznetsov scored the lone goal of the shootout.
Playing for the second time in as many nights and with the minimum 22-hour turnaround, the Caps never led in Sunday’s game, but they were able to scrape a pair of points thanks to a gritty team effort, excellent goaltending and a great night from their penalty kill.
“We’ve been in a few of these now,” begins Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery, “just grinding our way through, where you can tell fatigue is a factor and we’re trying to manage the game situation. We fight back in that game, get a huge goal to tie that thing up, and then weathered some storms there in our defensive zone. The penalty kill steps up huge, Kuemps was excellent tonight. He made some massive saves for us, and we just found a way to win.”
Washington snuffed out a four-minute Carolina power play in the first period, and it held its own against the Hurricanes’ vaunted forecheck in the opening frame. Neither team scored – though the Canes had a goal instantly disallowed on their lengthy power play; Carolina’s Stefan Noesen was in the crease – but Canes’ netminder Pyotr Kochetkov denied Tom Wilson’s shorthanded breakaway bid late in the period, likely the best chance either team had to jump out in front in the game’s first 20 minutes.
Early in the second, Kuemper thwarted Canes’ defenseman Jalen Chatfield from the slot on an odd-man rush, but the Canes broke the seal on the scoresheet just ahead of the midpoint of the middle period, going up 1-0 on a Sebastian Aho one-timer from the slot, off a nice feed from Seth Jarvis in the left wing corner at 7:41.
Washington began to tilt the table a bit thereafter, getting a series of offensive-zone draws during a stretch of stop and start hockey in which there were eight face-offs in just over two minutes of playing time.
Just after the midpoint of the period, the Caps pulled even on their first goal from a defenseman since Alex Alexeyev scored against Buffalo on Nov. 22. Martin Fehervary evened the score at 11:33, scoring from the slot off the rush, and on a neat feed from Tom Wilson. The goal came on a play that was similar to the one in which Kuemper denied Chatfield earlier in the frame.
“I saw an opportunity to join the rush,” recounts Fehervary of his first goal of the season, just the third from a Washington blueliner. “I don’t know [if it was] 3on-2 or 4-on-2, I just saw Willie get kind of delayed, and I was open. I don’t even know if I yelled, or he saw me. I got the puck, and then I saw they were cutting off [Alex Ovechkin] – not surprised – so I just shoot it, and it went in. I was really happy for it.”
When Carolina’s Tony DeAngelo sailed the puck over the glass soon after the Fehervary goal, the Caps had an opportunity to jump in front, but they weren’t able to do so. Caps’ center Connor McMichael committed the same penalty in the final minute of the second, giving the Canes a chance to restore their lead. Washington’s penalty killing outfit was also able to maintain the 1-1 tie.
The Caps weren’t able to mount much in the way of offense for most of the third period as the Canes continually swarmed them. Strome had a good look from the slot late, but Kochetkov made the stop.
Overtime was interesting; the Caps held onto the puck for a span of nearly three minutes, seemingly slow playing the Canes or even playing for the shootout. But the Caps did have two glorious chanes in overtime; McMichael’s shot was swept off the goal line by Brady Skjei, and Strome had the puck roll on him just as he was about to try to tee up a backhander from in tight.
Kuemper’s best save of overtime came on Martin Necas’ wraparound bid, and he improved to 3-0 in shootout decisions this season.
“I have a lot of trust in our shooters, that they’re going to go score,” says Kuemper of his shootout success. “So for me, I just want to do my part as well.”
Sunday’s victory lifted the Caps to 7-2-1 against their fellow Metropolitan Division denizens this season. They improve to 1-9-0 when scoring less than two goals.
“I think we relief a lot on our structure tonight,” says Kuemper. “We’re comfortable defending, comfortable playing these tight games, and finding ways to get some zone time down there. We had a couple of close calls; we could have had a couple more goals there. We’re just being patient and waiting for our chances to come.”
