Canes can’t handle desperate Capitals. How Washington shut down, shut out Carolina
Sometimes, a team faces a “line-in-the-sand” kind of game during the season, and the Washington Capitals had one Thursday.
The Caps had lost their past three games and six straight at home at Capital One Arena. They had fallen out of the top three spots in the Metropolitan Division and into the second wild-card playoff position in the Eastern Conference.
It was desperation time.
In came the Carolina Hurricanes, the Metro leaders. The Canes left the losers Thursday after a 4-0 beating from the Caps, headed back to Raleigh to face the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday with some questions of their own.
Caps goalie Vitek Vanecek won his first game since shutting out Dallas on Jan. 28, blanking the Canes with 36 saves. It was his third shutout of the season and 11th win.
Little went right for Carolina (37-12-5), which lost both games of their two-game road trip after an overtime loss in Detroit. The Canes seemed a step slow and their mental focus not very sharp much of the game. Goalie Frederik Andersen, involved in a big collision in the first period, took just his eighth loss of the season.
Asked his assessment of the game, Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said, “Not great. I’ll leave it at that.”
The Canes took too many penalties — again — but couldn’t bail themselves out with their top-ranked penalty kill in this game. The Caps’ Evgeny Kuznetsov scored a 5-on-3 power-play goal in the first period and the Alex Ovechkin on a 5-on-4 in the second.
“That’s the game,” Brind’Amour said. “The first period you’re in the box for six minutes, the five on three. I mean we can’t even get going.”
Ovechkin’s goal, on a scorching one-timer from the top of the left circle, was his 33rd of the season and the 763rd of his career. He needs three more goals to tie Jaromir Jagr for third place on the NHL’s all-time list.
“We’ve got to stay out of the box,” said defenseman Brady Skjei, who had a pair of penalties. “Six minor penalties, against a team like that and their power play, and it’s pretty tough to win.
“For us, it kind of kills the flow of the game. Guys who aren’t killing penalties aren’t playing as much and you just kind of lose that flow of the game.”
Defenseman Martin Fehervary also had a second-period score for the Caps (28-19-9), who were able to get to the middle of the ice and controlled the pace of play while Vanecek took care of his business. Dmitry Orlov scored late in regulation just after a Caps power play expired.
Forward Martin Necas, without a goal in 17 straight games, gave the the Canes some active, energized play. But there wasn’t enough jump elsewhere in the lineup, which had forward Derek Stepan drawing back in and Seth Jarvis made the healthy scratch.
The Canes had their power-play chances but appeared disjointed with the man advantage and couldn’t muster anything dangerous. They got off 17 shots in the third, which Brind’Amour called a “decent” period for the Canes, but Vanecek weathered it.
“We never quit,” Brind’Amour said. “But the game was over because we didn’t come out right and took all those penalties.”
Canes forward Teuvo Teravainen had a nine-game point streak, the longest of his career, end Thursday and Sebastian Aho could not extend his seven-game streak.
Looking to the Pens game, Aho said, “Tomorrow’s a new chance to redeem ourselves.”
This story was originally published March 3, 2022 at 9:32 PM.
