In what was the Washington Capitals best 60-minute effort of these playoffs, they took a 6-0 win in Game 5 and pushed the Hurricanes to the brink of elimination.
Entering Game 5 absent T.J. Oshie, who will be out indefinitely with an upper-body injury, and with Christian Djoos in the press box, the Washington Capitals earned a no-doubter victory.
The scoring started early for Washington, as Nicklas Backstrom put home his own rebound on the power play to lift the Capitals to a 1-0 lead. The rest of the first period was likely the best period the Capitals had played all series.
Backstrom double-dipped in the second period as the Capitals took advantage of a bad Hurricanes line change. Alex Ovechkin found Backstrom who fired the puck top shelf as the Caps doubled their lead.
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About two minutes later, Ovechkin hustled down the ice and beat Dougie Hamilton to a puck behind the Carolina goal line. Hamilton was either bracing for the hit or thought the play was an icing, but either way, Ovechkin fired a pass out front to a streaking Brett Connolly who buried the puck to give the Capitals a comfortable three-goal lead.
Washington didn’t coast in the third period, as Tom Wilson put home a rebound — with some luck — and gave the Caps a four goal lead to officially put the game out of reach.
Nic Dowd added a penalty shot goal a few minutes later, and Ovechkin tallied his third goal of the playoffs with a slapper from the left point to give the Capitals their final 6-0 lead.
Braden Holtby earned his seventh career shutout in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 30-save performance. Petr Mrazek stopped just 22-of-28 shots.
Recent call-up Devante Smith-Pelly skated just over 10 minutes on the night and finished with five hits. He had the second least ice time on the team, ahead of only Andre Burakovsky.
DSP didn't miss a beat pic.twitter.com/PCZbfmapy9
— NBC Sports Capitals (@NBCSCapitals) April 21, 2019
The Capitals finished the night 3-of-4 on the powerplay, while the Hurricanes finished 0-for-5.
Just about every conceivable thing went right for the Capitals. In this series thus far, every game has been won by the home team — also the team that’s scored first.
Whatever the Capitals did to put an ugly pair of games in North Carolina behind them, it worked.
The Hurricanes will respond, rejuvenated and embarrassed, and give their best effort in Game 6. Should the Capitals not be ready for it, we’ll see you for Game 7 on Wednesday.