WASHINGTON– The old hockey saying goes that you’re not in trouble in a playoff series until you lose at home. The Carolina Hurricanes will need to hope that’s the case, as they’ll head back to Raleigh down 2-0 in their first-round series after a 4-3 overtime loss to the Washington Capitals in game two at Capital One Arena Saturday.
Forwards Lucas Wallmark, Sebastian Aho both pickes up their first career playoff goals, and forward Jordan Staal scored for the Hurricanes (0-2). After a poor performance on special teams in game one, Carolina held the Capitals’ (2-0) power play scoreless on four tries, including a five-minute major in the second period, and scored a power-play goal with five minutes left to send the game to OT.
“It’s tough right now,” said head coach Rod Brind’Amour. “[Aho] has one goal; our top guys are not on the scoresheet. Theirs are. I feel pretty good that if we get those guys going, which they have all year, it’ll give us a better chance to win, that’s for sure. Because we’re hanging around and I don’t think we’re playing our best hockey. That’s, I guess, somewhat of a positive.”
Less than two minutes into overtime, with Hurricanes forward Teuvo Teravainen missing a stick after giving his to defenseman Brett Pesce, who lost his in the neutral zone, Capitals defenseman Brooks Orpik crept in from the point and rocketed a shot past Canes goalie Petr Mrazek for the overtime winner.
Despite the loss, Mrazek played a strong game in net, stopping 29 of 33 Capitals shots, including one from Caps defenseman John Carlson at the buzzer.
“He made quite a few big saves for us just to get us to have a chance to win so I thought he was solid,” Brind’Amour said. “Tough one for him, thought he played well.”
The Canes had to battle back to get the game to overtime after Capitals forward Tom Wilson put Washington up 3-2 with 11:05 to play in the third period.
For the second time in the series, Carolina got a chance to tie the game down 3-2 with a late power play, Staal took a stick up high from Dowd with 5:36 to play. This time the team made good; Staal tipped a point shot from defenseman Dougie Hamilton with exactly five minutes left, tying the game at three with Carolina’s first power-play tally of the series.
Much like in game one, the Canes found themselves behind the eight-ball early, as goals from Washington forwards Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie put the Capitals up 2-0 less than 10 minutes in.
“That’s playoff hockey,” said forward Justin Williams. “Every game’s different. We did a really good job on the power play and we get a lot of penalties against us. We got a big power-play goal. It’s really hard when you spot teams leads like that like we have in the last two to battle back.”
Wallmark got the Canes on the board with 4:06 left in the first with his third point of the postseason, tipping a shot from the side-boards by defenseman Jaccob Slavin past Capitals goalie Braden Holtby. The Capitals challenged that Canes forward Saku Maenalanen interfered with Holtby on the goal, but it was upheld after a brief review.
Less than five minutes into the second period, the Canes were put in a serious bind when forward Micheal Ferland hit Capitals forward Nic Dowd off the rush, and received a questionable five-minute match penalty for a hit to the head, giving the Capitals a five-minute power play. Dowd briefly went to the Caps’ locker room but returned to the bench. Brind’Amour was visibly angry during an exchange with an official after the call.
“I don’t think it was a dirty hit,” Ferland said. “I don’t think I deserve to be suspended. I take pride in my game of being a clean hitter and I never want to hurt anybody. So I don’t think it was a dirty hit.”
There was a scary moment late in that Caps’ power play when a point shot from Carlson hit Mrazek in the mask, knocking his mask off. Mrazek, however; after getting checked out by Canes trainer Doug Bennett, seemed to be alright and remained in the game.
The Canes killed the major penalty to Ferland, as a hook against Oshie ended Washington’s power play early, leading to 51 seconds of four-on-four play before a Hurricanes power play.
“That gave us momentum for sure,” Mrazek said. “When you kill five minutes against a team like that … Their power play is one of the best in the league. We did fantastic on the PK today.”
Directly after Ferland’s penalty ended, Dowd was whistled for high-sticking, giving the Canes a golden chance to tie the game with 1:07 of a five-on-three power play. They could not convert, however, and remained down 2-1.
Aho evened the score for Carolina with 3:11 left in the second period, stuffing a puck between Holtby and the post off rebound of a shot off the end boards, snapping a personal 15-game goal drought going back to the regular season.
“It’s not like we’re playing bad but this time of year you’ve got to get that extra step and play even better,” Aho said. “Ok is not ok, so it’s just trying to play our best.”
The Canes will now head back to Raleigh with work to do, trailing by a pair of games in the series. The best-of-seven will resume Monday at PNC Arena with a 7 p.m. puck drop for the Canes’ first home playoff game since 2009.
