NHL
NHL Playoffs
WASHINGTON — The series between the Carolina Hurricanes and Washington Capitals wasn’t decided by an inch. The deciding game, though, came close.
Carolina, behind another strong game from goalie Frederik Andersen and goals from Jordan Staal and Andrei Svechnikov, beat the Washington Capitals 3-1 in Game 5 to win their second-round Stanley Cup playoff series on Thursday.
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With the loss, the Capitals are eliminated from the postseason. Carolina, meanwhile, is in the conference final for the second time in three seasons. The Hurricanes await the winner of the other Eastern Conference semifinal series between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers — though we’ve all got a hunch how that one will turn out, don’t we?
Here’s what I saw from Capital One Arena in Game 5.
Sometime in the second period, the game started to feel odd. We saw an overturned goal, a double-doink miss about two seconds before the second intermission from Carolina’s Seth Jarvis, near misses on both sides and a few different chaotic sequences that pushed Andersen into the net.
ANDREI SVECHNIKOV GIVES CAROLINA THE LEAD LATE 😱 #StanleyCup
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Nothing was stranger, though, than the shot that put Carolina through to the Eastern Conference final. With 1:59 remaining, Svechnikov whipped a shot along the goal line past goaltender Logan Thompson. Thompson had been outstanding until that point — the Capitals’ best player — but it didn’t matter. Svechnikov stunned the crowd, and that was that.
“Tight games like that, it takes one bounce and it was this guy over here (Svechnikov) to just kind of rip one on net and got a fortunate bounce,” Staal said. “That’s kind of the way it goes sometimes. ”
Thompson, good as he was in the game and the series, shouldered the blame.
“I just lost sight of it for a second. There (were) kind of bodies coming in between and it’s my job to find the lane and get my eyes on it and he sifted it through,” he said.
“It was a terrible goal to give up to end a season and I’ve got to wear that. I’m an adult. That’s on me, and I can be better.”
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Ironically, the goal came at the tail end of what might’ve been Washington’s best period of the series. After five games’ worth of discourse about the Hurricanes’ five-on-five dominance, the Capitals decisively won both the shot attempt and scoring-chance battle in the final 20 minutes of their season.
Plenty of stuff was going to need to go the Capitals’ way if they wanted to extend the series, and it all started with Thompson, who’d been good overall in the postseason and remarkable at Capital One Arena (.954 save percentage and 10.6 goals saved above expectations coming into Thursday). If he wasn’t at his best, Washington wasn’t going to have a shot — and Thompson did his part, especially on a remarkable sequence in the final minute of the first period.
After a pad save on Taylor Hall carried him out of the crease and left the goal wide open for Logan Stankoven on the rebound attempt, Thompson gathered himself and lunged to his right, stoning Stankoven and keeping the score tied 1-1.
WHAT A STOP BY LOGAN THOMPSON 😳 #StanleyCup
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The similarities between Thompson and Braden Holtby, the starter on the 2018 Stanley Cup champions, had already turned into a meme among Capitals fans, and Thompson’s stop added some grist to the mill. Holtby, of course, made a high-stakes paddle save of his own on Vegas Golden Knights winger Alex Tuch during Game 2 of the 2018 Final.
Thompson’s cover version isn’t going into Capitals lore, but it was still emblematic of how solid he was for most of the game, series and season.
“LT’s been unbelievable all season,” Capitals center Dylan Strome said. “Nothing to hang his head about. It’s just an unfortunate bounce.”
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Staal’s goal, a rocket over Thompson’s glove that the Capitals goalie had no realistic shot at stopping, opened the scoring at 9:38 of the first period.
Jordan Staal opens the scoring with his first of the 2025 #StanleyCup Playoffs! 🚨#NHLStats: https://t.co/O5VImrDrjQ
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It was Staal’s first of the series, making him the 14th Hurricane to score in those five games. If you want proof of Carolina’s superlative depth, a constant push that Washington could not consistently answer, there’s your stat.
“We’ve loved the way this team has come together in everyone’s little roles, and scoring is big in the playoffs, especially the way we play,” Staal said. “It takes pressure off of guys like (Svechnikov), and it’s important to keep doing that.”
Staal’s line, with wingers Jordan Martinook and William Carrier, was strong all game, most often against Washington’s top line of Ovechkin, Strome and Anthony Beauvillier. When they were on the ice together, Carolina won shot attempts 33-22 and held narrow edges in every other important five-on-five category — including goals, thanks to the captain.
Alexander Nikishin’s first NHL period was nothing to write home about; it doesn’t get much more uneventful than 4 minutes, 42 seconds of ice time featuring two total nondescript shot attempts. In the second period, though, things got real in a hurry for Carolina’s fascinating 24-year-old defenseman.
Nikishin, who’s been in North America for about a month after leaving the KHL, replaced the injured Jalen Chatfield in Carolina’s lineup. After a slow few shifts to start things out, he narrowly avoided disaster less than two minutes into the second period, making a terrible giveaway in Carolina’s end that led to an apparent goal by Matt Roy off a setup from Jakob Chychrun. Washington’s Connor McMichael, though, was offside on the play, and the goal was overturned after the world’s quickest challenge. A few minutes later, Nikishin headed to the box for tripping Pierre-Luc Dubois.
By the end of the second, Nikishin had fully settled in, flashing the skillset — skating, size, fearlessness — that made Carolina’s front office so intent on getting him in the mix. On one shift, he shut down Alex Ovechkin and generated some shots for himself.
“I think he played an awesome game. I was so nervous (for him),” Svechnikov said. “I think he did a great job. You know, I couldn’t imagine just (coming) from Russia and play a playoff game. Must be so hard. But he did a great job. I’m very proud of him.”
(Photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
Sean Gentille is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the NHL. He previously covered Pittsburgh sports with the The Athletic and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the NHL for Sporting News, and he’s a graduate of the University of Maryland. Follow Sean on Twitter @seangentille
