Hurricanes offense regains its footing as Carolina blows past Washington Capitals
The Washington Capitals had been one team the Carolina Hurricanes couldn’t beat this season.
No longer.
After a scoring outburst Saturday against the St. Louis Blues, the Canes maintained their shooting touch Monday with a convincing 6-1 road victory over the Caps at Capital One Arena.
It was another game when the Canes’ side of the scoresheet was packed. Martin Necas scored twice, giving the speedy winger four goals in his last four games, and had an assist. Sebastian Aho had a shorthanded goal, always a momentum-shifter, and defensemen Brett Pesce and Brady Skjei each had a goal.
One downside: center Jesperi Kotkaniemi was injured with 1.8 seconds left in regulation on a big hit from Lars Eller along the boards and had to be helped off the ice. Eller was called for charging after what was a needless hit.
“Just so stupid,” Necas said of the hit. “It’s a 6-1 game, one second left and he tries to be a hero or whatever. Just ridiculous.”
Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said he was not sure of the extent of the injury but said, “It’s not good.”
The Kotkaniemi line provided the game’s first goal. Quickly in transition, Derek Stepan took a breakout pass from defenseman Tony DeAngelo and ended up scoring off the rebound of a Kotkaniemi shot. That set the tone.
Canes goalie Frederik Andersen was the benefactor this night, as Antti Raanta was in the Canes’ 7-2 road win over the Blues. Like Raanta, he had his share of some timely saves among his 25 stops as the Canes improved to 44-15-7.
Andersen twice stopped Alex Ovechkin in the second period on power-play shots that would have tied the score. Ovechkin then failed to paw down a puck chipped off the glass and Aho was off with it.
Aho skated past Marcus Johansson and beat goalie Vitek Vanecek with a forehand as he swept in front of the net. Aho had his 29th of the season and the Canes a 3-1 lead -- Aho’s first shortie of the season and 13th of his career.
“That’s the big goal of the game, probably the turning point,” Brind’Amour said.
After Pesce and then Necas scored on shots from the slot, it was 5-1 after two periods, and Skjei scored the only third-period goal. Max Domi, Teuvo Teravainen and Vincent Trocheck each had two assists — Domi’s first points with the Canes.
It was a night mostly of frustration for the Caps (37-21-10), who won the first three games against Carolina this season and were 9-2-1 in March before Monday’s game.
“It felt like the first game out of the four where we played actually like our game,” Necas said.
Vanecek, for example, shut out the Canes 4-0 with 36 saves on March 3. He lasted two periods Monday.
Ovechkin buried a power-play shot in the first period and was set to celebrate. But the whistle had blown just before the shot and the Caps’ T.J. Oshie was called for slashing.
In the third period, Caps bruiser Tom Wilson, who scored their goal, dropped the gloves and wanted to go with the Canes’ Brendan Smith, who took a pass on a fight — briefly. The two later traded blows in a fight that lasted longer than it should have. Smith was left a bit bloodied but answered Wilson’s challenge.
“That was two tough dudes going at it,” Domi said.
That’s two wins in two games in what might be the Canes’ toughest three-game road trip of the season. Carolina goes to Tampa Bay on Tuesday to close out the back-to-back.
“We want to keep building, want to keep getting better every day,” Andersen said.
This story was originally published March 28, 2022 at 9:43 PM with the headline "Hurricanes offense regains its footing as Carolina blows past Washington Capitals."
