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Washington Capitals Fail to Close Out Carolina Hurricanes, Series will Take Seven

By Michael Marzzacco

RALEIGH, NC - APRIL 22: Petr Mrazek #34 of the Carolina Hurricanes squares up in the crease to face a shot on goal by Alexander Ovechkin #8 of the Washington Capitals in Game Six of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs on April 22, 2019 at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Gregg Forwerck/NHLI via Getty Images)
RALEIGH, NC - APRIL 22: Petr Mrazek #34 of the Carolina Hurricanes squares up in the crease to face a shot on goal by Alexander Ovechkin #8 of the Washington Capitals in Game Six of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs on April 22, 2019 at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Gregg Forwerck/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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The Washington Capitals came off their best playoff performance with a chance to close out their first round series against the Carolina Hurricanes.

They followed that up by going up 2-1 in Game 6 in the first period but the Washington Capitals were unable to hang on. The Carolina Hurricanes rallied for a 5-2 win to even the series. Now a best of seven has went from a best of three to a best of one.

The Capitals got on the board early with a Brett Connolly goal at 5:06. It was a puck sequence around the net from Andre Burakovsky to Lars Eller, to Connolly from behind the goal with a snipe for the finish. It was the second straight game Connolly scored.

The Hurricanes tied it thanks to Warren Foegele before Alex Ovechkin put the Capitals back ahead at 15:12 for his fourth goal of the playoffs.

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The Hurricanes answered with four unanswered goals. They tied it in the second period with a goal from Teuevo Teravainen. They added three more in the third from Jordan Staal, Justin Williams and an empty net goal from Dougie Hamilton.

The Capitals were outshot in all three periods. Ironically, their worst shooting period happened to be in the period where both their goals happened. Washington was outshot 15-7 in the first, 9-7 in the second and 12-11 in the third making it 36-25 overall.

“I thought we needed a little bit more from all our players tonight. It’s self inflicted. We didn’t do a great job of managing the puck to give ourselves a chance to get in on the forecheck as much as we did in Game 5,” said Capitals head coach Todd Reirden.

All seven goals in this contest came at five-on-five, none on the power play. The Capitals went 0-for-2 while the Hurricanes went 0-for-4 on the man advantage.

Braden Holtby stopped 31-of-35 in the loss for an .886 save percentage while Petr Mrazek stopped 23-of-25 for a .920 save percentage.

There was a point in the third period at 10:34 where it looked like Ovechkin tied the game but the play was waved off due to goaltender interference. Reirden challenged the play but it was upheld, forcing the Capitals to burn a timeout.

Next. What the Capitals did in Game 5 is exactly what they'll have to do in Game 7. dark

After that goal didn’t count that’s when the storm surge took over. The Hurricanes added three more goals to erase any chance of the Capitals ending the series Monday night.

Now the Capitals have to wait until Wednesday.

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