The Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricaens squared off in Game 1 Tuesday night at Capital One Arena. The Canes would prevail on an overtime goal from Jaccob Slavin.
The first period was scoreless as the Caps were outshot 12-5. The Hurricanes would be putting up shots the whole game making Logan Thompson work extra harder in goal.
Aliaskei Protas in his second game back from a lower body injury sniped one in at 3:53. Brandon Duhaime and John Carlson had the assists. It was the 2019 pick's first career playoff goal. Duhaime picked up his first playoff assist while Carlson has two helpers.
1-0 would be the score after two with the Hurricanes leading 8-6 in shots in the second period.
Logan Stankoven tied it at 9:42. Hurricanes led in shots 11-3 in the third period and the game would head to overtime. The Canes outshot the Caps 2-0 in the extra session and got the winning goal from Slavin at 3:06.
"It wasn't good. That's the bottom line. Our entire game was not good. We'll regroup and get ready for Game 2. "Spencer Carbery
"They were pressuring us all over the ice. We've got to find a way to break it. I felt like we didn't play our style of hockey tonight. We kind of let them dictate the game, and they're a good team when you let them do that," said Dylan Strome.
With no shots in the overtime and just held to three in the thrid period, Strome is right. The Caps weren't playing their style and that's what caused them to falter late. But even so, Tom Wilson is showing no panic.
"There's enough experience in this group. It's one game. I don't think sayone expected the playoffs to just be a straight line of ups. There's going to be ups and downs. The next game's the biggest game," said Wilson.
Game 2 comes up on Thursday night from Capital One Arena. The puck drops at 7 p.m. on ESPN.