In Raleigh, the Hurricanes’ season continued to limp along on Sunday in a 2-1 loss to the visiting Washington Capitals, after penalties. 
“It’s a gritty win, it’s a character win,” Washington forward Tom Wilson said. “Obviously some adversity, but no excuses. We just found a way.”
Darcy Kuemper made 28 saves in the win.
“I think for the team, it’s definitely a momentum builder,” Kuemper said. “The penalty kill has been giving us life all year. To get a big four-minute kill to start a game like that kind of sets the tone for everybody else.”
Evgeny Kuznetsov was the lone striker in the skills portion of the evening’s affairs.
The Caps improved to 15-9-4.
Sebastian Aho scored the Canes only goal in regulation, he hit for his marker at 7:41 of the middle frame.
“In this kind of game, a power-play goal would have been a game-changer,” Aho said. “I felt 5-on-5 we were fine. It wasn’t all bad, but scoring a power-play goal probably gives us an edge tonight.”
The Hurricanes dropped to 16-12-3.
“We knew coming in exactly how it was going to go,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “They play tight, tight games, and I thought we stuck with our game plan really well. [We] hit a few goal posts. A couple inches here or there and it would have been a much different story.”
The Caps tied it on Martin Fehervary‘s first goal of the season at 11:33 of the second.
“I saw an opportunity to join the rush,” Fehervary said. “I was open. I don’t know if I yelled or he saw me. I got the puck and then I saw they were cutting off to [Alex Ovechkin]. I’m not surprised, so I just shot it and it went in.”
Pyotr Kochetkov made 20 saves in the loss.
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