For the first time this season, the Carolina Hurricanes have won five games in a row — a complete turnaround from their mid-season slump a few weeks prior. With a dominating third period and a 6-2 win over the Washington Capitals, Carolina set the tone to take the Metropolitan Division by storm. 

Three different Canes (22-13-4) players totaled three points against the Caps (18-13-6) — center Sebastian Aho, right wing Andrei Svechnikov and defenseman Brent Burns. Aho now has a point in nine of his last 10 games played and leads the Hurricanes in points, goals and assists. 

Aho’s name made headlines for another reason after he was included in the first wave of NHL All-Stars who have been chosen to play in the All-Star game in Toronto on Saturday, Feb. 3. With 43 points in 35 games, it was a no-brainer to put “Fishy” on the star-studded roster. 

But Washington didn’t care about Aho’s nomination — right wing Tom Wilson was selected from the Caps — and the hosts knew just how to contain this buzzing Carolina offense early in the game. One of their main tactics was scoring first; seven minutes into the game, the Capitals got on the board with a goal from veteran center Nic Dowd that gave a large boost of momentum to his bench. 

Both teams worked hard to keep the puck out of their respective zones, which resulted in multiple penalties for Carolina and one for the home team. While the Canes got the first power play of the night, the fourth best power play unit in the NHL couldn’t execute and was left with nothing when the two minutes expired. 

With less than five minutes left in the first period, all seemed well for the Canes, but another Washington goal quickly put them down 2-0. Netminder Pyotr Kochetkov — in his seventh start in the past eight games — finished the period with a .677 save percentage but quickly rebounded throughout the next two periods. 

The second frame was far more defense heavy than the first, with neither team getting past eight shots on goal. For the first four minutes of the period, there were no shots from either roster, but that quickly changed courtesy of Burns. 

With Aho and Svechnikov working on the forecheck, Burns was fed a pass while skating by himself in front of the net, and he slipped a quick slapshot past the Washington netminder Darcy Kuemper. Now only down by one goal, the Canes bench was ready to rock and roll.

In the third period, the Hurricanes offense had no trouble putting shots past Kuemper — five to be exact. Less than four minutes into the final frame, center Seth Jarvis poked the puck past the goal line to bring the match to 2-2 and recorded his 14th goal of the season, already tying his season total from last year. 

From there it was all Carolina, with its second goal of the period coming off of a power play with seven minutes left. Fed a cross-zone pass from Aho, Svechnikov took aim, fired a snipe past Kuemper and elevated the visiting team to 3-2. With his goal and two assists, Svechnikov has now tallied multiple points per night for the past six games. 

It wasn’t long before another power play goal was scored, this time by Burns. Less than two minutes after Svechnikov scored, the defenseman tallied his second goal of the night and brought the lead to 4-2. 

In addition to its above average abilities when it comes to scoring on the power play, Carolina is also good at shutting down opposing team’s man advantages. Given that the Hurricanes rank 10th in the NHL in penalty kill, any team taking on Carolina should be worried about its chances of properly capitalizing on the man advantage. The Canes took it one step further against Washington and scored a goal when the Capitals were on a power play — and as fate would have it, it was a former Washington player who scored a fatal blow. 

Defenseman Dmitry Orlov played over 650 games in the Washington uniform from 2011 to 2023 and won the Stanley Cup with the franchise in 2018. In his return to the Capitals’ home turf, he was met with a standing ovation and a touching tribute video shown in the first period. He didn’t show any mercy against his former team, scoring an empty-net goal from 200 feet across the ice to make it a 5-2 game. 

The Capitals only got one shot in throughout three power plays in the third period and were held to seven shots compared to the Canes’ 16. The final goal of the game came from an unlikely source — forward Vasily Ponomarev put the nail in the coffin in his first ever NHL game. Called up from the AHL Chicago Wolves, the rookie made his mark on NHL ice and dealt the final blow to Washington to make the game 6-2. 

Carolina will travel back to Raleigh with a quick turn around — the team is slated to take on the St. Louis Blues on Saturday, Jan. 6 at 8 p.m.