The Washington Capitals fell in the shootout to the Carolina Hurricanes on Halloween night in their first overtime contest of the season but they at least secured a point. Securing a point for a banged up team is always a good way to end a four game road trip. The final score was 3-2.
Stefan Nosen put the Hurricanes up 1-0 at 4:27 of the first period on a power play goal. That would be the score after 20 with the Hurricanes leading in shots 11-6.
At 1:23 in the second the Caps tied it on a rebound in front of the net from Dylan Strome for his second goal of the season. Nick Jensen and Conor Sheary had the assists.
The Caps would later get a power play and Alex Ovechkin would strike from his office for his fifth goal of the season at 8:57. It was the 785th of his career. He’s now 16 goals from Gordie Howe and 109 from Wayne Gretzky. Erik Gustafsson and Evgeny Kuznetsov had the assists.
Andrei Svechnikov tied it at 15:42. 2-2 was the score after two with the Caps leading in shots 7-6 in the second period.
The third period was scoreless with the Hurricanes leading in shots 15-7. The game would head to overtime where the Canes outshot the Caps 3-1 and 35-20 overall. No score in the three on three so we would head to a shootout.
Brent Burns put the Hurricanes up in the skills competition. Evgeny Kuznetsov tied it. Svechnikov put the Hurricanes in front. Ovechkin got stopped as did Martin Necas and the Hurricanes sealed the win by stopping Strome.
Although the Capitals lost this wasn’t on starting goalie Darcy Kuemper, who played excellent with 33 saves. He got praise from head coach Peter Laviolette as well as his teammates.
Laviolette said, “Darcy was big I thought the entire night. He played a spectacular game.”
The Capitals will look to bounce back on home ice tonight against the Vegas Golden Knights.