Recap: Capitals 2, Hurricanes 1

The Carolina Hurricanes allowed another goal in the opening minutes, fought to tie it up, then fell behind again due to a late turnover as they lost to the Washington Capitals, 2-1 on Thursday night in front of 10,791 at the PNC.

Alexander Semin tied the game 4:02 into the third period on his first goal of the season, a pretty rising backhander, but that would be the only puck to get past Braden Holtby this night.  The goal was Semin's 500th career point.

The Caps scored just 2:19 into the game when Michal Jordan lost the puck near center ice. Jason Chimera skated it into the Carolina zone and both Jordan and Ron Hainsey chased after him.  That left Jay Beagle all alone for the easy put back of the rebound and the Canes found themselves quickly behind, like they have several times this season.

It was a pretty evenly played game after that, even if the second period was a little slow.  Coach Bill Peters said he liked his team's play for the most part, but the second period could have been better.  It seemed though that Holtby had little traffic in front of him most of the night.

Semin had one of his better games of the season.  Not only did he score Carolina's only goal, he led the team with five shots on goal and also had a team high four takeaways.  Peters has liked his game for the past week or so and said that he has been working harder.

Later in the third period the Canes turned the puck over again, something that just cannot happen in such a tight contest.  Riley Nash lost it and Eric Fehr beat Anton Khudobin high glove side with the eventual game-winner.

The hard luck goalie was obviously unhappy after the game.  "Two turnovers is why we lost", he said.  "If we score more than two goals, we win", he also chipped in.  Khudobin is yet to win a game this season, (0-6-2) but has deserved better.

The Canes went with six attackers with about three minutes left, but they were unable to score the tying goal and dropped their second game out of three so far in this most recent homestand.  They are 3-7-0 in their last 10 games.

When asked about his team's personnel after the game and if they needed changing, Peters bristled.  "Our personnel is fine, we need to coach them up and dig in.  This is a young team, right? They need to learn."

The Hurricanes did not have a powerplay this game and Peters made a comment about that as well.  (There was one penalty called on Washington, but it was for a 4-on-4 chance).  Carolina killed off two powerplays by the Caps.

In the meantime, the team could be running out of time this season as they fall further out of a playoff spot.  Things don't get easier as they face the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday.

Game Notes:

• Justin Faulk of course led the team with 24:26 of ice time.  Next up was Hainsey with 22:00 and Eric Staal with 21:40.
• The Canes had 24 blocked shots led by Gleason, Rask, and Hainsey with three each.  The Caps had 28 blocks.  Orpik had seven.
• Semin's four takeaways led both teams. He did not have an official giveaway this game but Riley Nash had three. 
  
• The team had 33 hits led by Gleason with five.