The Carolina Hurricanes ended up on the wrong end over another close game with a 4-3 loss to the Washington Capitals on Friday, March 18. A tightly contested game of hockey culminated in a shootout win for the Caps and the Canes’ first shootout loss of the season.
Carolina (41-14-6) had a “bell curve” kind of night, starting out poorly before pulling ahead in the middle third only to lose in the end. Washington (35-18-10) held a 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission, but the Canes battled back to take a 3-2 lead well into the third period. The Caps then scored on a late power play to send the game to overtime.
“We weren’t very good,” said head coach Rod Brind’Amour. “I thought we were still in a position to win there at the end, obviously. [Goaltender Antti Raanta] played good for us, kept us in the game. We capitalized on a couple of chances that we had. We didn’t really generate anything so the mere fact that we were in a position to win, we were pretty fortunate.”
Center Seth Jarvis reentered the lineup in style with a pair of goals on the night. Jarvis broke an 18-game scoring drought by netting the game opener in the first period and gave the Canes that 3-2 lead right before the second intermission. Even though Carolina couldn’t get both points, Jarvis was relieved to get back on the scoresheet.
“It felt really good,” Jarvis said. “It’s been a while. It’s probably the longest I’ve gone without a goal in my career, so to get that one felt really nice. It just let me stop thinking about it a little bit.”
Raanta’s performance was more consistent with the team overall, stumbling out of the gate before pulling it together, just to come up short. The Canes netminder failed to stop Evgeny Kuznetsov from threading the needle from a very wide angle to even it up at 1-1 and was simply not fast enough to parry away John Carlson’s goal later that period. Despite the rough start, Raanta managed to collect himself and bide time for Carolina to claw back into the game.
Center Vincent Trocheck netted the other non-Jarvis goal for the Hurricanes on a close-range Howitzer in the second period, but his most memorable moment of the night came in the third on the penalty that led to Alex Ovechkin’s game-tying goal. Trocheck and Garnet Hathaway got tangled up in the Canes’ offensive zone, but it was Trocheck that got sent to the box for interference.
Washington wasted no time capitalizing on the opportunity as the Caps won the faceoff and immediately dished the puck to Ovechkin who fired it past Raanta to knot it up at 3-3 with just over five minutes to go in regulation, eventually forcing OT.
A goalless overtime period set up the Canes’ second shootout of the season, their first coming in a 3-2 win against Ottawa on Jan. 27. Caps goalie Ilya Samsonov stonewalled Trocheck, right wing Andrei Svechnikov and Jarvis, respectively. On the other end, Raanta stopped Kuznetsov and Nicklas Backstrom before Ovechkin converted on his shot to win the game.
The Canes will be back in action in PNC Arena for another Metro division showdown with the New York Rangers on Sunday, March 20. Puck drops at 6 p.m.
