Capitals 2, Hurricanes 1 (OT)

The Carolina Hurricanes still have yet to lose a game in regulation since the trade deadline day but lost their latest contest to the Washington Capitals, 2-1 in overtime on Tuesday night at the Verizon Center.

The Hurricanes defense lost track of Alex Ovechkin in front of the net and the Russian sniper notched his 42nd goal of the season for the game-winner.

The Canes set a new franchise record playing in their fifth consecutive overtime game in the loss.  The team started six defensemen with an average age of 21.5 years, but looked no worse for it.  Ron Hainsey was ill and was replaced by Trevor Carrick, who had 16:34 of ice time in his NHL debut.

Eddie Lack perhaps played his best game of the season and turned back 29 shots of the 31 he saw.

After a scoreless first period, Justin Williams put the home team up 1-0 early in the second when he chipped in a puck from in close.

Later in the second, Jordan Staal tied it up when he picked up a loose puck which was created when Phillip Di Giuseppe physically created some space.

The game remained tied up until the end when the Canes went into familiar territory.

After Ovechkin scored just 1:38 into the extra period, the refs went to review the play.  Looking at the replay, it seemed like Evgeny Kuznetsov skated in offsides on a similar play that Jeff Skinner got called on earlier in the game.  His two feet were clearly in the offensive zone but the puck was behind the line with no stick on it.

Kuznetsov himself was shown looking up at the replay and then seemed dejected as it looked like he assumed he was offsides.  But the refs didn't see it that way and the goal stood, much to the chagrin of head coach Bill Peters.

The Canes will next take on the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night.

Game Notes:

• The young Carolina defense had a couple of shaky moments but for the most part played a solid game against the number one team in the NHL.
• The Canes were outshot 31-26.  Victor Rask and Skinner led the way with four shots each.
• Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce led the team with over 22 minutes of ice time each.
• Event Summary