Canes top Caps in penalty filled fiasco
The Carolina Hurricanes jumped out to an early lead and Frederick Andersen and the team’s defense did the rest as the Canes defeated the Washington Capitals, 5-1 on Wednesday night at the Lenovo Center.
It was Andersen’s seventh win in a row.
The win put Carolina into the playoffs for the seventh straight year.
All eyes were on Alex Ovechkin, and he did score a powerplay goal though it took a two-man advantage to do it. Otherwise the star was held down.
Six minutes into the game, Sean Walker got the party started with a nice wrister to give the home team the early lead.
Just four minutes later, Jackson Blake made it, 2-0 when he knocked in a rebound. This was a powerplay goal.
The Canes dominated the first period with their puck possession and shots on goal.
Seth Jarvis scored another powerplay tally three minutes after that and the rout was on, 3-0.
The Caps had a pushback in the second and evened up the shots on goal stat.
But midway through the period, Logan Stankoven took a nice pass from Jack Roslovic and made no mistake to make it 4-0, Carolina.
The Canes were called for two holding penalties near the end of the period, the second being on Brent Burns where it appeared he never grabbed the player.
But this was just the opportunity Ovechkin needed as he buried a shot from his favorite spot on the ice with just 35 seconds left in the period.
Then came the third period which turned into being one of the craziest you will see.
First of all, Blake scored again, to make it 5-1.
Then it was a parade to the penalty box and to respective locker rooms as both teams lost composure.
The Caps were charged with 18 penalties for the game for 74 minutes which included four misconducts.
The Canes were penalized 15 times for 68 minutes and also had four misconducts.
One of the misconducts was given to Stankoven, who mixed it up with the much larger, Tom Wilson.
I won’t get into any more details of the penalties, I would have to watch replays. Let’s just say it was wild.
These two teams will mix it up again in Washington in eight days. It should be interesting.
Andrei Svechnikov left the game early because of an injury. An update will be given about him on Friday.
The Canes will fly to Detroit tomorrow for a game against the Wings on Friday night.
Game Summary – https://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20242025/GS021193.HTM
Event Summary – https://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20242025/ES021193.HTM
Team’s Recap – https://www.nhl.com/hurricanes/news/recap-canes-crush-caps-clinch-playoff-berth
Some other pics from Canes Country photographer, James Jackson.
