In Washington, DC, Stefan Noesen scored a power play goal late in the second period on Tuesday to give the Carolina Hurricanes a 3-2 lead over the Capitals.
Frederik Andersen, who made 13 saves in the third period, and 34 overall, made that score stand up for the 3-2 win.
“We played hard,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “It wasn’t a great game by us by any stretch, but third period, obviously ‘Freddie’ made a couple nice saves, and we were able to just kind of hang on. So, we’ll take the win and move on.”
The Canes improved to 35-10-8.
“For us, it’s just kind of finding our legs, finding our groove after that break,” Carolina forward Paul Stastny said. “I think we were playing pretty well going into the break (seven straight wins) and now we’re just slowly finding it more and more the past couple games, and I think we’ll be able to get back to where we were before.”
Brent Burns staked the Hurricanes to a 1-0 lead at 15:00 of the first period.
TJ Oshie tied the game, 1-1, with 58 seconds left in the opening period.
The Capitals dropped to 28-22-6.
“I thought we played hard against a real good team,” Washington coach Peter Laviolette said. “I didn’t like the outcome. We didn’t win the hockey game. Did a lot of good things, but in the end we came up short.”
Carolina reclaimed the lead at 2:33 of the second period on a strike by Calvin de Haan.
Washington chased that lead down with a goal from Joe Snively.
“The plan was just to take warmups in case of emergency, and I got the [word I was playing] right before warmups,” Snively said.
It was his first of the campaign.
“He was fantastic for us out there,” Oshie said of Snively. “He obviously hasn’t been a part of some of the struggles that we’ve had lately, so he looks like he kind of came in with a fresh, young face and played great out there.”
At the midway point of the third period, it seemed that the Caps had tied the game, 3-3, on a scramble in the crease. The goal was waved off after video review for interference on Oshie.
“On the overhead, it’s clear [Oshie] goes in by himself and he takes a crack at the puck but then he lies on the goalie for a split second,” Brind’Amour said. “So, by the letter of the law, you’re not allowed to do that, so that’s why I was pretty sure.”
Darcy Kuemper made 27 saves in the Washington loss.
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