In Raleigh, Alex Ovechkin scored in the third period to get the Washington Capitals even with the Hurricanes, 3-3, on Friday night and force extra time.
“He wants it on his stick,” Washington coach Peter Laviolette said. “He doesn’t want to be on the bench, he wants to be out there making the difference. His release is something. He’s a big-time player.”
The extra session solved nothing, and the Caps defeated the Canes, 4-3, skills.
Ilya Samsonov made 17 saves. in the Caps win.
“I thought it was awesome,” Laviolette said. “It might have been one of the best games we’ve played in all year. We had a real good response physically in the first period.
“There’s teams that play fast, and Carolina is one of them, so you have to play at that speed. If you don’t, you don’t have the puck and you’re not in the game. Our guys, I thought we did a good job of putting the hammer down.”
Seth Jarvis hit for a double for the Hurricanes.
“It’s probably the longest I went without a goal in my career,” Jarvis said. “To get that one felt really nice, and it allowed me to stop thinking about it a bit.”
Carolina dropped to 41-14-6.
Evgeny Kuznetsov and John Carlson added single markers for Washington in regulation.
“We felt really good about our game,” Carlson said. “The last five minutes or so (of the second period), they weren’t our best but they weren’t that bad either. We felt confident in our game and how it was going for us. When things go well, you prove to yourself your capabilities.”
The Capitals improved to 35-18-10.
“It’s kind of how it’s been all year, just kind of dealing with guys in and out,” Carlson said. “Guys can step up and play bigger minutes and play bigger roles. I think you’re seeing that day by day. It was a gutsy effort.”
Vincent Trocheck also scored for Carolina.
“We weren’t very good,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We were still in a position to win there at the end. We capitalized on a couple chances we had. We didn’t really generate anything. The mere fact that we were in a position to win, we were pretty fortunate.”
Ovechkin was credited with the deciding goal in the skills competition.
Antti Raanta made 37 saves in the Canes loss.
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