Canes lose late lead, fall in shootout to Caps

Sometimes it feels like a team just has your number.

The Carolina Hurricanes suffered their third loss in three games against the Washington Capitals this season Friday night in PNC Arena, falling 4-3 in a shootout after holding a late 3-2 lead.

And while Carolina did extend its home point streak to 14 games, it was a missed opportunity to get the full points as Alex Ovechkin tied the game on the power play with just over five minutes remaining in the third period before Ovechkin won it in the shootout.

For the Canes, Seth Jarvis was the brightest star in the first multi-goal game of his NHL career, scoring the Canes’ first and third goals. Vincent Trocheck added the game-tying goal in the third period, bringing the Canes back from a 2-1 deficit that was provided by Evgeny Kuznetsov and John Carlson.

Between the pipes for the Canes was Antti Raanta, who bounced back well after a rough first period. In total, Raanta stopped 37 of 40 shots faced on the night. The winning netminder was Ilya Samsonov, who made 17 saves.

It was an incredibly physical, playoff-like game with the Hurricanes answering Washington’s physicality in a way that it maybe hasn’t done in the first two games against the Caps this year. The teams combined for 57 hits, with Washington having the 31-26 edge.

Brendan Smith, recently back from injury, was particularly imposing in the physical aspect of the game, finishing with # hits and laying a couple of massive ones to really get the team and the crowd fired up.

Some examples, for your viewing pleasure:

The first period was a chippy, chippy affair, with heavy hits thrown from both teams and five combined penalties. Two of those penalties for each team were concurrent, with the teams playing four scoreless minutes of four-on-four action during the opening period.

Carolina got things started on the scoreboard, as Jarvis scored his first goal in 19 games, and the Canes first first-period goal in eight games, with a beautiful wrister from the slot.

Raanta made a pair of good saves to spark the Canes going the other way, with Steven Lorentz making a collected play to grab the puck and dish it off to Jarvis. The wrister from Jarvis was a fantastic one, as he blasted it past Samsonov to make it 1-0.

Kuznetsov tied it up at 1-1 shortly later with a wild wrister, collecting the puck after a pretty bad turnover from Nino Niederreiter. Kuznetsov got it behind the net and skated himself parallel to the end line, sniping a super-tight angle shot past Raanta into the roof of the net.

Carlson buried a one-timer from the circle to make it 2-1, another goal Raanta probably would like back.

The Canes opened the second period with a bad power play, as a late first-period penalty from the Caps gave Carolina 1:58 of man advantage to start the middle frame. That man advantage was gross, though.

Trocheck tied up the game though with another fantastic shot for the Canes, as Ethan Bear powered a pass through two defenders to Trocheck in the slot. Trocheck pulled the quick trigger and zipped a wonderful goal past Samsonov.

In the waning seconds of the middle frame, the Canes made it 3-2 as Jarvis scored his second. The Canes had a late faceoff in the offensive zone that got tied up in the corner, with Andrei Svechnikov backhanded a pass to Jordan Staal, who threaded one to Jarvis in the middle.

The Hurricanes’ young rookie converted on the chance, powering one through Samsonov to give the Canes the lead just 13 seconds before the end of the second period.

The third period was more of the same, as the teams battled physically in a really tight game. The Canes got another power play, and it was better, but still came up empty. And with 5:08 left in the game, Trocheck took an avoidable penalty and gave Washington a power play.

And immediately on the man advantage, Ovechkin ripped a shot past Raanta from his wheelhouse to tie things up at 3-3.

The overtime period wasn’t great, with Washington completely dominating all possession of the puck and peppering shots on Raanta, who prolonged things for quite some time on his own.

Jarvis was whistled for a (questionable) penalty with 1:38 left in the overtime period, but the Hurricanes clamped things down and survived the push from Washington until a Kuznetsov penalty with 19.8 seconds to go brought things back to even strength.

In the shootout, Trocheck, Svechnikov and Jarvis were all denied for the Canes, while Ovechkin netted Washington’s third shot to win the game.

The Canes will be back in action Sunday at home against the Rangers.