In Raleigh, the Washington Capitals surrendered a two-goal lead to the Hurricanes on Sunday night in the third period.
Dmitry Orlov scored off the power play with less than three left on on the regulation clock to give the Caps a 3-2 lead. An empty net goal iced the win, 4-2.
“It became a real competitive game,” Washington head coach Peter Laviolette said. “It was fast, there wasn’t a lot of space out there.”
Ilya Samsonov made 30 saves in the Caps win.
“It was a great moment for us to win the game,” Orlov said. “We had a lot of shots, a lot of recoveries. That power play was huge for us. I kind of knew I got maybe a little chance at the net, so I tried to come there and have a strong shot.”
Washington improved to 14-3-5.
Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Nino Niederreiter rallied the Canes back from an 0-2 deficit wtih two goals in the third period.
“That’s a tough way to end a game,” Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “It was a great game. I thought we had a great third period. I thought we did everything we could.”
Carolina dropped to 15-4-1.
“I try to shoot wherever it’s open. I’m glad it went in,” Niederreiter said. “It’s obviously good to get on the scoresheet, but at the end of the day it wasn’t enough to win the hockey game, so that’s the bad part about it.”
John Carlson hit for a goal and three points in the win; his was an epty-net strike.
“There were different tales between the periods,” Laviolette said. “The first one was back and forth, the second one I thought was all us, the third they pushed really hard. They’re a really good team.”
Alex Ovechkin had a goal in the Caps win.
Aliaksei Protas also scored for Washington, giving them a 2-0 lead; it was his first NHL goal
“It feels unreal,” Protas said. “I had real good chances created by ‘Ovi’ and [Kuznetsov] in the first period. I just tried to put the puck in the net, play a little more simple and it got in. It’s an unreal feeling.”
Frederik Andersen made 21 saves in the Canes loss.
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