For the third time in Rod Brind’Amour’s tenure as head coach of the Carolina Hurricanes, the Canes are headed back to the Eastern Conference Finals after their 3-1 victory over Washington in Game 5.
It’s the Canes’ second-straight series that they’ve won in five games — a display of dominance in the postseason.
Right wing Andrei Svechnikov’s game-winning goal with 1:59 left in the third proved to be the dagger that knocked the Capitals out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Svechnikov now sits solely in second place for goals in the 2025 playoffs with eight. While his scoring at even-strength seemed to disappear for much of the regular season, Svechnikov has turned it on when the games matter most, with seven of his eight goals coming at 5-on-5.
“All year we’ve been waiting for that Andrei,” Brind’Amour said.
For the first time in the series, each team recorded a goal in the opening period. The captain, center Jordan Staal, got it started for the Canes when he sniped the top corner 9:38 into the game. After forcing a turnover on the forecheck, Staal got the put back and beat Capitals netminder Logan Thompson high to his glove side.
Backs against the wall, and in a must-win game, the Capitals didn’t stay down for long. Capitalizing on a bad bounce, left wing Anthony Beauvillier stuffed the equalizer through the five-hole of Canes goaltender Frederik Andersen. Canes defenseman Jaccob Slavin tried playing the puck off the backboard, but the puck bounced straight back out in front of the goal and Beauvillier didn’t squander the opportunity.
Neither team was interested in opening up the game and as a result, both teams would bunker down in their defensive end, trying to muck it up in any way possible. This style of play made it feel like the game would be destined for overtime before Svechnikov scored from a near-impossible angle.
“We’re a lot of just on top of guys,” Staal said. “We’re trying to give them the least amount of room and make them turn the puck over so we have the puck and when we have the puck, move it as quickly as we can into their end and grind them out.”
The Hurricanes await either the Florida Panthers or Toronto Maple Leafs, but most likely the former, who hold a 3-2 series lead. Assuming the Panthers close the series out on home ice, it would be a rematch of the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals in which the Panthers swept the Hurricanes.
There are a lot of lessons the Canes will have learned from that series as they look to try and win a game in the third round for the first time since they won the Stanley Cup in 2006.
A series against the Panthers would mean the Canes hold home-ice advantage, advantageous considering they have remained perfect at home this postseason with a 5-0 record.
For now, the Canes will rest up and look to get fully healthy again. Defenseman Jalen Chatfield missed the series finale due to injury and as a result, the highly-coveted defenseman Alexander Nikishin drew into the lineup for the first time in his place. The Russian only logged 10:33 of ice time.
