Washington Capitals lose third straight with a 4-3 loss against Carolina Hurricanes
Things are not going well for the Washington Capitals after they lost once again this time to lowly Carolina Hurricanes by 4-3 in overtime on Tuesday, March 6, 2012 at the Verizon Center.
The Capitals had failed to score a single goal over its last two games, this time they did score but once again their poor defending was their Achilles Heel.
This was Washington’s third straight loss and they have now dropped down to ninth in the Eastern Conference with 70 points, two behind eighth placed Winnipeg Jets.
Capital’s players were not satisfied with their performance in defence. Centre Brooks Laich said about his team’s loss after the game.
"Turnovers. Missed assignments. Just not playing the situation. If you're going to give up goals, you want to make them work for it."
The Hurricanes have nothing left to play for this season and are playing spoiler and may have just managed to completely spoil the Capital’s chances of reaching the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Carolina’s win puts them four points ahead of Eastern Conference bottom team Montreal Canadiens as they rank 14th in the conference with 64 points.
Captain Eric Staal was proud of his team’s victory and praised their efforts.
"We felt like we played a pretty solid road game tonight and were deserving to get the two points,"
Brandon Sutter who scored the Hurricanes third goal in the final period was happy with the win telling the media after the game.
"The last two or three years, a lot of times we've had tight games here in Washington and lost our fair share in overtime. To come back and win it like that was a good feeling."
The Capitals went ahead at 13:59 in the first period as they ended a two game goal drought. Troy Brouwer scored the goal to put Washington 1-0 up.
Washington improved its lead to two goals early in the second period as Jay Beagle scored his first goal of the season for the Capitals to make it 2-0.
It took Carolina just 40 seconds to reply as they pegged back the Capitals lead to just a single goal through Jiri Tlusty.
Chad LaRose got both teams level at 2-2 eight minutes into the second period.
Both teams looked for the winner in the third period and it was Carolina who struck first taking the lead for the first time during the game to make 3-2 as Brandon Sutter scored at 1:45.
However, Washington took their time and were rewarded for their patience late in the period with Brooks Laich bringing the score level at 3-3.
The Capitals did well to send the game to overtime but it just wasn’t their day as Carolina scored at 3:38 in overtime to win the game by 4-3.
Washington will look to end its three game skid on Thursday against Tampa Bay Lightning while the Hurricanes will hope to build on the win against Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday.
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