At the other end, Cam Ward tied a career-high with 42 saves and stopped the Washington Capitals' first two shootout attempts but not the third.

From such small margins, the Carolina Hurricanes found defeat Tuesday -- and in the process, their margin of error in the Southeast Division got a little smaller as well.

With a 3-2 shootout loss to the Capitals at the RBC Center -- Viktor Kozlov scored the only goal of the shootout on the sixth and final attempt -- the Hurricanes gave away a point to Washington, which now sits four points back with five games to play.

"Obviously, it would have been nice to get two points, but at this stage of the season, against who we're playing, it's a valuable point and we'll take it," Ward said.

In what Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau called "Super Tuesday" for the playoff race, not only were the Canes and Capitals in a virtual referendum for the division title but five other games had Eastern Conference playoff implications.

In one, the Florida Panthers lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning to fall seven points behind Carolina and five points out of the eighth playoff spot.

But the big game in the Southeast was at the RBC Center, and the Caps walked away with new hope that they can catch the Canes.

"The point that we got was an important point," Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette said. "The point we gave up was also an important point. ... Regardless of what happened tonight, we knew we still had work to do."

While the Capitals outshot the Canes 9-1 early, the Canes were up 1-0 at the first intermission after an oddball power-play goal and great goaltending by Ward.

With time winding down in the period, Jeff Hamilton tried to get the puck across the ice to Staal, but his pass hit the left skate of Washington's Boyd Gordon and the puck shot straight toward the net.

Screened by four players, Capitals goalie Cristobal Huet never saw the puck until it was behind him. The goal, with 13.3 seconds left in the period, put the Canes in the lead because of Ward, who stopped all 13 shots he faced in the first, including three by Alex Ovechkin.

Washington's best chance, with Ovechkin carrying the puck on a three-on-one rush, was denied by Tim Gleason, who hustled back to knock the puck away from Kozlov as he tried to shoot.

"We were a little sluggish at first," Laviolette said. "Maybe jittery. I'm not sure."

But before the second period was half over, the Capitals were up 2-1 -- the first goal after a questionable tripping penalty on Staal gave Washington a five-on-three, the second after a nice play by Nicklas Backstrom to set up Ovechkin's 61st goal.

The score was tied going into the third after Shaone Morrisonn pushed Erik Cole into Huet and the puck followed Cole into the net on a Carolina power play late in the second period. A lengthy video review overruled the initial "no goal" call, and it was all square going into the third.

In the shootout, Staal thought he had a goal over Huet's left shoulder, but he drew iron instead. That was Carolina's third attempt, after Jeff Hamilton and Sergei Samsonov failed to score.

At the other end, Kozlov beat Ward with a wrist shot to give the Capitals the win.

"I thought I had it," Staal said. "There was a lot of net there. That would have put some pressure on them going down the ice, but it's one of those things. It just didn't bounce our way tonight."