It’s a whole new series for the Carolina Hurricanes.
After falling behind the Washington Capitals (2-2) 2-0 in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Hurricanes (2-2) took care of business on their home ice Thursday night, knotting the series up at 2-2 with a 2-1 win in PNC Arena after winning game three 5-0 at home earlier in the week.
The Canes got a goal 17 seconds into the game from forward Warren Foegele, and forward Teuvo Teravainen delivered the game winner in the waning seconds of the second period. The Caps tied things up in the middle period thanks to the NHL’s leading goal scorer, forward Alex Ovechkin, but Carolina clamped down after the Teravainen goal and dominated the third period to come away with the win.
“I can’t say enough about our group,” said head coach Rod Brind’Amour. “They just battled. Next guy up, whoever is ready, we are giving it everything we can. Our defense was really solid tonight. We really held the fort down tonight. It was a really good team effort.”
Petr Mrazek was spectacular in net for the Hurricanes, as the Czech netminder stopped 30 of 31 shots faced and made a number of tricky saves to ensure the Carolina victory. Mrazek’s finest moment came late in the third period, as he turned away a strong power-play opportunity from Caps forward Evgeny Kuznetsov.
“He’s been huge,” Foegele said. “Petr made some big saves tonight to keep us in the game and he’s always a brick wall.”
As good as Mrazek was in net, the Canes defense was just as good in front of him. Carolina didn’t give Washington much space to shoot all night, as it seemed that every blueliner on the Canes, particularly Jaccob Slavin and Justin Faulk, had a great game.
“[Slavin] was phenomenal,” Brind’Amour said. “I thought [Faulk] was phenomenal, I thought [Brett Pesce] was phenomenal, our whole D corps.”
The first goal came before the first line change for Carolina, as Foegele, who scored the first two in the Canes’ 5-0 win in game three, slotted away a great pass from Slavin just 17 seconds in to put Carolina up 1-0.
It was the fastest goal to start a playoff period, let alone game, in Hurricanes franchise history, as Foegele tallied his third score of his first-ever Stanley Cup Playoffs. Slavin did most of the work on the game-opener to grab his fifth assist of the series, working into the offensive zone before laying off a great backhanded pass to Foegele for the easy finish.
“I’m just trying to work hard every day, and I’ve been lucky to get a couple of bounces,” Foegele said. “Those goals wouldn’t happen without my linemates, and that was a great pass by Slavin there. Just coming to the rink with a good attitude and just keep working hard.”
The Canes, who were already playing without forwards Andrei Svechnikov and Micheal Ferland, took another injury blow late in the first period. Forward Jordan Martinook lined up to deliver a big hit behind the Caps’ goal, but ended up sending himself straight into the boards.
Martinook struggled mightily to get off the ice with what looked to be a serious lower-body injury. He returned to the ice briefly in the first period, but after hobbling around the ice didn’t play at all in the final 40 minutes.
“He’s been battling an injury all year,” Brind’Amour said. “I don’t know if he re-aggravated it. I’m not really sure because I haven’t gotten the full update, but he has a lower-body injury.”
The Caps tied the game up at 1-1 midway through the second period thanks to bullet off the stick of Ovechkin. Teravainen went to the penalty box for hooking, and Washington made Carolina pay, as Ovechkin rifled in his second goal of the series from the top of the circle.
After Washington dominated most of the second period, Carolina brought on a late second-period surge that resulted in a goal from Teravainen to make it 2-1 with less than 30 seconds to go in the period. The Canes got out on a break, and forward Nino Niedereitter laced a beautiful pass right to the stick of Teravainen, who slotted it past Washington goaltender Braden Holtby, who stopped 22 of 24 shots faced on the night, to regain the lead.
“It just felt like I had some time and Nino made a really nice pass to me,” Teravainen said. “They’re a pretty good team, so that will happen, they will take over. It’s all about getting back into our game and fighting when we’re not doing that good.”
The Hurricanes gained all the momentum from Teravainen’s tally, coming out with a ton of energy and dominating the early minutes of the third period. Washington started to get back into things as the period went along, and got a great opportunity to tie the game with 5:08 to play as Foegele went to the box for a boarding penalty.
Carolina successfully killed off the Foegele penalty, with Mrazek showing some flashes of brilliance in the final seconds.
The Hurricanes closed the game out successfully in front of a raucous crowd of 19,202 rowdy fans, a new PNC Arena record, that were engaged in the game from puck drop to the final horn.
“It’s crazy. I’ve never been a part of something this loud. To feel that rush through your body when they scream, there’s no words for that,” Foegele said. “That crowd got all of us going there. When you carry the puck, you can hear the crowd roar. We’re feeding off that crowd and believing in each other.”
The Caps and Canes will be back in action Saturday in Washington for game five, as the two teams will battle to gain an upper leg in the series. Carolina has the momentum in the series, but will have to try to find a way to win outside of PNC Arena.
“I think it comes down to a quick start,” Foegele said. “We won’t have our crowd there. We just need to keep pushing away and keep sticking to the game plan.”
Washington Capitals captain Alexander Ovechkin resets after an icing during the fourth game of the series against the Carolina Hurricanes in PNC Arena, Thursday, April 18. After winning game three 5-0, the Canes won 2-1 to tie up the first round of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
