The Washington Capitals opened their defense of the Stanley Cup on Thursday night when they hosted the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals at Capital One Arena. The Caps broke out to an early lead, and then they held on for dear life before scoring a late empty net goal to seal a 4-2 win.
First Period
Carolina came out hitting everything that was moving and
dominated play early. They could not
solve goalie Braden Holtby, though, and not taking advantage their territorial
edge came back to bit them. It was the
Caps who broke on top, mid-way through the period. John Carlson sent a cross-ice pass out of his
own end to Nicklas Backstrom in the neutral zone. Backstrom weaved his way through center ice
and into the Carolina zone, and then using defenseman Jaccob Slavin as a
screen, snapped a shot over goalie Petr Mrazek’s glove to make it 1-0, 9:58
into the period.
The Caps’ power play took over after that. With Justin Faulk in the box on a
high-sticking call, Backstrom camped out at the post to the right of Mrazek,
and with Carolina’s defense otherwise occupied, was all alone to redirect a
centering pass from Evgeny Kuznetsov from the right wing circle behind Mrazek
to make it 2-0 at the 13:10 mark.
The Caps closed the scoring in the first period on another
power play. Alex Ovechkin started the play with a cross-rink pass to Evgeny Kuznetsov along the right wing wall. Kuznetsov slid the puck out to John Carlson at the top of the zone for a shot that pinballed when it reached the crease. The loose puck skittered to Mrazek's right where Ovechkin was lurking, and Ovechkin slid a shot under Mrazek's right pad to make it 3-0, 18:05 into the period. That would do it for the first period scoring.
-- Carolina out-shot the Caps, 10-9, and out-attempted them,
19-15.
-- John Carlson had three assists, the first defenseman in
Capitals history to record three assists in one period of a playoff game.
-- Carolina was credited with 23 hits in the first period.
Second Period
The Caps put little pressure on Carolina in the second
period, but Carolina was unable to take advantage, and the team skated 20
minutes without a red light being turned on.
-- Carolina out-shot the Caps, 11-4, in the period, and they
out-attempted them, 20-19.
-- The Caps closed the hits margin in the period, credited
with 27 after two periods to Carolina’s 32.
Brooks Orpik led the team with six.
-- The fourth line took only seven shifts, total, through
two periods.
Third period
If a two-goal lead is the most dangerous lead in hockey, the
three-goal lead is not far behind. When
Carl Hagelin had the Caps’ potential fourth goal on his stick on a breakaway in
the fourth minute of the period, it looked as if this game could be put safely
to bed. Alas, Hagelin’s backhand was not
elevated, and Mrazek stopped it with his right pad. And that would be meaningful later.
How? Barely a minute
later, Andrei Svechnikov ended Braden Holtby’s shutout bid when he took a drop
pass from Linus Wallmark just inside the Caps’ blue line, circled through the
right wing circle and around John Carlson, and snapped a shot past Holtby’s
blocker on the far side to make it 3-1, 5:07 into the period.
Carolina closed to within a goal less than three minutes
later, once more courtesy of Svechnikov.
Justin Faulk dumped the puck into the Caps’ end, and Wallmark got to the
loose puck first. He spun and centered
the puck, but it slid behind Greg McKegg to Svechnikov in the right wing
circle. He one-timed the puck past
Holtby on the short side, and it was 3-2, 7:26 into the period.
The Caps buttoned things up better after that, and they even
killed two Carolina power plays down the stretch. A minute after killing the second of those Hurricane
power plays, Lars Eller ended the suspense, scoring an empty net goal at 19:23
to ice the 4-2 win.
Other stuff…
-- The Caps had 18 shots on goal. It was the 22nd time in team
history that the Caps recorded fewer than 20 shots on goal in a playoff game
and the eighth time they did so in a win.
-- Alex Ovechkin had 11 shot attempts. Not all that unusual. The seven missed shots? Yeah, that stood out.
-- Carolina out-attempted the Caps, 69-43, 30-9 in the third
period.
-- Nic Dowd celebrated his signing a three-year contract
extension with the Caps by skating 6:40, which wasn’t even the team low. Chandler Stephenson skated 6:12, and Andre
Burakovsky skated 5:27; neither had a shot attempt. It was a quiet night for the fourth line.
-- Five Caps took faceoffs in this game. None finished at 50 percent. Three finished at 43 percent (Nicklas
Backstrom, Lars Eller, and Nic Dowd.
-- Brooks Orpik did not have a shot attempt, but he did have
seven hits to lead the team. And
Carolina, who opened the game with 23 hits in the first period, had only a
37-35 edge at the end.
-- Nicklas Backstrom had his third career multi-goal game,
tying him for fifth place all time on the Caps’ list of playoff game multi-goal
scorers.
-- Odd that Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom each skated
less than 13 minutes at even strength. Five
forwards skated more, including Carl Hagelin, whose 17:59 at even strength led
all forwards.
-- Lars Eller was the only Capital with more than one
takeaway. He had three.
-- The win was Braden Holtby’s 46th career
playoff win, breaking a tie with Tony Esposito for 23rd place, all
time, and lifting him into a tie with Jonathan Quick for 22nd place.
In the end…
Pretty? No. But the only thing that matters is that it
was a win. Still, the Caps were almost
victimized by a problem they have had all season and have yet to solve – weak third
periods. This is the wrong time of year
to endure that sort of thing, and it is something that the club needs to
address if they are to keep home ice advantage.