Hurricanes ride on Jaccob Slavin’s overtime shots to beat Capitals

In front of thousands of fans at Washington’s Capital One Arena, Slavin’s shot found its way into the net during overtime, giving the Carolina Hurricanes a 2-1 victory over the Washington Capitals in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series.

“I didn’t know it went in until I saw Jordan Staal, Staalsy, coming with his arms up yelling at me,” Slavin said after the game.

The goal ended a tight, hard-fought battle between two teams fighting to move one step closer to the Stanley Cup, the NHL’s biggest prize.

The Hurricanes had been shooting all night with a whopping 94 shot attempts, with 33 of them reaching the net. Washington, meanwhile, struggled and managed just 14 shots.

That’s not normal for a team that finished as the top seed in the Eastern Conference.

“We didn’t play our style of hockey,” Capitals forward Dylan Strome said. “We let them dictate.”

Washington scored first in the second period, when young forward Aliaksei Protas got his first-ever playoff goal. But Carolina didn’t give up. In the third period, Logan Stankoven scored to tie the game after a bad bounce off a Capitals player’s skate.

“I just thought I’d rip it,” Stankoven said. “It was nice to see it go in.”

Returning from injury, Carolina’s goalie Frederik Andersen had a strong game and stopped 13 shots. The Capitals’ goalie Logan Thompson made 31 saves and kept the game close, but Carolina’s pressure finally broke through.

The Hurricanes also stayed perfect on the penalty kill as they stopped all of Washington’s power plays. They’ve now done that 17 times in a row in these playoffs.

Coach Rod Brind’Amour, after the match, said,

“Obviously, it wasn’t the greatest of goals, but they all count.”

The series continues Thursday night in Washington. If the Capitals want to stay alive, they’ll need to find a way to handle the Hurricanes’ speed and constant shooting.