Washington Capitals defeat Carolina Hurricanes in shootout
The Washington Capitals remained unbeaten against the Carolina Hurricanes this season with a 3-2 shoot-out victory on Sunday 28 November. The victory was the third in the row for the Capitals
against an opponent from their own division.
The win before a sell-out crowd of 18,398 at Washington’s Verizon Center moved the Capitals home record to a league best 12-1-1 while their overall record improved to 17-6-2. The Hurricanes
fell below .500 with the loss at 10-11-2.
Marcus Johansson opened the scoring at the 7:00 mark of the first period beating Hurricanes goaltender Cam Ward with a wrist shot. The goal was the third of the season for the Capitals
rookie.
Alexander Semin would make the score 2-0 when he scored with a little more than one minute left in the first period. Nicklas Backstrom started the play, passing the puck from in front
of the Washington net as Alex Ovechkin skated along the boards. Ovechkin and Semin then broke free on a two-on-one. Ovechkin waited until Ward committed to him and he then backhanded a pass to Semin who put the puck behind the out of position goalkeeper.
The Hurricanes' Erik Cole pulled his team within one goal when he scored just 50 seconds into the second period. Hurricanes captain Eric Staal took the puck behind the Washington net and
threw a crisp pass to Cole at the side of the net. Capitals goaltender Semyon Varlamov still had his eyes on Staal when Cole put the puck behind him for the goal.
The score would remain 2-1 until the final seconds of the game. With Ward on the Carolina bench in favour of an extra attacker, Staal would win the face off and direct the puck back to
Joni Pitkanen who fired a shot on net. Pitkanen’s shot was blocked, but Staal was able to gather the rebound and beat Varlamov to his stick side, scoring the game-tying goal with 2.2 seconds left on the clock.
Neither team was able to generate much offence in the overtime period. Carolina had three shots during the five-minute stanza, while Washington only put two pucks on the Hurricanes net.
The Capitals secured the 3-2 victory when Alex Ovechkin was the sole player to score in the shootout.
Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice, coaching in his 1000th game, had the following to say about his team’s play: “We were comfortable playing Washington's game, which we're not built
to play and very few teams are,” Maurice told NHL.com. “We got better then battled and scratched and clawed – did a real good job coming back against a tough team that doesn't give up many points at home."
Ovechkin, who has become an assist machine as of late, with seven in his last five games was happy with the win, saying,"I think this was huge points for us. When you play against a team
that plays in your division you have a chance to move forward while they stay in the same position. This was a big game for us."
Tags: