Complacency, thy name is Capitals.
On Thursday night, the Capitals were home, where they had won three games prior to Game 7, and looking to close out the pesky Carolina Hurricanes.
That feeling of destiny took deeper root in the first period when Andre Burakovsky and Tom Wilson staked them to a 2-0 lead.
To Carolina’s credit, they never panicked and rallied back to force overtime in Washington.
That calmness lead to confidence and Brock McGinn‘s strike at 11:05 of the second overtime session to give the Canes a 4-3 win and 4-3 series win over the once defending Stanley Cup champions.
“We got some huge goals by some big players, huge saves by Petr [Mrazek] when we needed them, a huge goal by Jordan [Staal] to start the third period,” Carolina captain Justin Williams said. “We didn’t give up. When it was 2-0, we told ourselves we wouldn’t let it snowball like we did in the other games. We regrouped and stayed with it.”
The winning goal came a on an aerial shot toward the Caps’ crease. McGinn deflected in mid-flight into an open cage.
“It’s tough,” Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin said. “Obviously, we thought the first two periods we dominate. A couple lucky bounces and they’re in the game. But it was a great series, lots of toughness, lots of hard plays over there.”
Sebastian Aho and Tuevo Teravainen got the close in the second period and Jordan Staal knotted the game at 3-3 to force the extra time.
“It’s 2-0, they get a power play. If they score, it’s done,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “Then we get the shorthanded (goal), and I think it just perked everybody up. ‘Hey, we’re still in the game.’ And then we got better as we went along.”
Petr Mrazek made 34 saves to get the win.
“They played a very aggressive game, and it’s not easy. It’s not easy. We didn’t expect it to be easy, and we’re certainly disappointed by the outcome,” Capitals head coach Todd Reirden said after the series loss.
Evgeny Kuznetsov scored his first of the series in the middle frame.
“Looking back at that, we need to find a way to shut them down there or keep them out of the score sheet there when we got a 3-1 lead,” Capitals forward Nicklas Backstrom said.
[WATCH:Â Hurricanes vs. Capitals Game 7 highlights |Â Complete series coverage]
Braden Holtby made 38 saves in the loss.
“It’s just a screen shot out of the corner,” said Holtby, about the game-winning goal. “Not sure if it was off the ice or not. I don’t know. It’s just one of those plays that are hard to the front and you have to work for it.”
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