Caps aim to even series Monday night in Raleigh
May 12 vs. Carolina Hurricanes at Lenovo Center
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: TBS, truTV, MAX
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN, Caps Radio 24/7
Washington Capitals (51-22-9)
Carolina Hurricanes (47-30-5)
Game 4 – Carolina leads series, 2-1
After splitting the first two games of their second-round Stanley Cup playoff series with the Carolina Hurricanes in DC, the Caps came to Raleigh for the weekend seeking to restore the home ice advantage they surrendered with that split at home. Although they turned in arguably their best 60-minute outing of the series in Saturday’s Game 3 in Raleigh, the Caps came up empty on the scoreboard in a 4-0 loss to the Canes.
Now they’ve set their sights on squaring the series in Monday’s pivotal Game 4 of the set at Raleigh’s Lenovo Center.
Washington generated a number of early scoring chances but couldn’t convert any of them into an early lead in Game 3, ultimately falling behind in the game and the series. According to naturalstattrick.com, the Caps had a lopsided 8-1 edge in high danger scoring chances in the first period of Game 3, but Carolina netminder Frederik Andersen was equal to each of them, and the game remained scoreless past the midpoint of the middle period.
Andersen made 21 saves to nail down his first playoff shutout with Carolina, becoming the 10th goaltender in NHL history to record a playoff shutout with three different teams; he previously achieved playoff clean sheets with Anaheim and Toronto.
Soon after some midgame line adjustments, the Canes broke the 0-0 deadlock with a pair of goals in the back half of the second period and two more in the third. The first of the four goals stung because the Caps won a defensive zone draw, only to fall down 1-0 three seconds later when Andrei Svechnikov jumped to the puck first and fired a well-placed shot past Logan Thompson.
Down 2-0 headed into the third, the Caps opened the final frame with the lion’s share of a carryover power play, but they couldn’t break the spell. Carolina’s Eric Robinson scored on another well-thrown dart – a far corner shot off the rush – at 3:14 of the third to make the hole deeper, but Andersen and the Canes already had all the offense they’d need by that point of the contest.
“I thought we did a lot of good things, especially early in that hockey game,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “We don’t find a way to break through, and then we give that one up on the face-off, and the power play one and we’re playing from behind. It’s not a good recipe for success in this series – not that it’s insurmountable – but it puts us behind the eight ball.
“And then we just didn’t do enough on the power play or 5-on-5 to get that game back, when we’re down 2-0 to get it to 2-1 and mount a comeback.”
Before the series got underway, Carbery mentioned special teams play, goaltending and secondary scoring as keys to playoff series. And although the Caps played well and generated more offensive opportunities in Game 3, they were outdone by Carolina in each of those three aspects on Saturday.
For the Caps, the key to Game 4 is to swing some of those elements back in their favor and to continue to generate and create offensively while finding a way to finish some of those chances. But Washington has also lacked primary scoring in its second-round set with the Canes.
In the first three games of the series, the Caps have been limited to just four goals, one of which was an empty netter. Alex Ovechkin and Dylan Strome combined to score six of Washington’s 18 goals in the team’s first-round series win over the Montreal Canadiens, but the duo has been held without a goal in the first three games against Carolina.
“They’re a line, and Stromer’s line relies a lot on entries and creating off of entries,” says Carbery. “And you’re just not going to get very many of those against the Carolina Hurricanes with their gap control and the length and the size of their [defensemen] so they have to really, really work in the offensive zone on the forecheck to be able to create off of a face-off play or whatever it might be; you’re going to have to beat someone. And that’s hard for anyone, but hard for that line as well.”
Time and space have been hard to come by for both teams in this series, but the Canes were able to take a lead in the series by doing what Carbery suggests, by beating someone and making a play. Both Svechnikov and Robinson were able to create space for themselves in that manner to score the only two goals of the game that were scored at even strength.
While the outcome of Saturday’s game is disappointing, the Caps have the confidence that if they’re able to play more of Game 4 the way they played for the first half of Game 3, and if they’re able to break through and finish some of their scoring opportunities, they’ll be able to head back to DC with the series even for Thursday’s Game 5 in the District.
“I think we definitely need a little more finish,” says Caps defenseman John Carlson. “But no team is going to have a full 60 [minutes] in this playoffs against any of these teams. But having that mentality to weather through some storms of flurries of shifts and of little stretches, yes. I think we feel better about where we’re at right now, and we’re looking forward to [Monday] night.”
And while Monday’s Game 4 is not an elimination game for the Caps, it is a truly pivotal Game 4 because the difference between the two possible outcomes is drastic. If they win, the Caps restore home ice advantage and shrink the set to a best-of-three series. And if they lose, they’ll be in a 3-1 series hole and will need to win three straight against a strong Carolina squad.
Three games in, Washington has played a bit better – and for more of the 60 minutes – than in the previous game. The Caps took a similar path in the first round, hitting full stride late in Game 4, but they’re down a game this time around.
“It was no different in Montreal when you lose Game 3,” says Carbery. “That’s what the postseason is about, and we’ve got a lot of experienced guys who’ve been through this before. You reset; we can win a game [Monday] night. Is it a back against the wall, difficult game, Game 4 in their building after losing Game 3? For sure, but it’s an opportunity to even the series.
“That’s what the playoffs is about. You reset, you re-focus and you expect to have your best performance of the season, your best shift of the season on your next one. Our guys are really good at that; they’ve been good at that through the regular season, and we need to have that same mindset going into Game 4.”

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