Hurricanes Win ‘Frozen Frenzy’ Game Against Capitals, but Lose Veteran Player to Injury

Well, it was certainly frozen, and it was a frenzy, alright…

The Carolina Hurricanes’ second meeting with the Washington Capitals was certainly not like their first as they charged from behind to take the lead and win the game 4-2 Tuesday night.

Before any goals were scored, during an early stoppage in play, fans and players took a moment for an ovation for Alexander Ovechkin, as it would be the final time in his career playing in Lenovo Center – the same arena he was selected first overall in during the 2004 Entry Draft – in the regular season.

And then followed a goal – one from Boone Jenner that squeaked around Pyotr Kochetkov’s catcher to give the Capitals the lead.

It would prove to be the only goal of the first period, as they nearly scored again later, but a league review ruled that Kochetkov had kept the puck from crossing the goal line.

As the second frame opened, the Hurricanes were without Taylor Hall, who briefly returned for an 11-second shift, before inevitably being ruled out of the game for an upper-body concern. Nonetheless, Andrei Svechnikovgot things cooking for Carolina with a goal to tie the game within the first four minutes.

Justin Holl came back a few minutes later to reclaim the lead for Washington, but it wouldn’t last very long.

Before the end of the period, Eric Robinson – who moved to the second line in place of Hall – charged the Capitals’ net alongside Jackson Blake. In an attempt to pass Blake the puck, the rubber biscuit instead hit the blade of Martin Fehervary’s stick, deflecting past Logan Thompson for the goal. …Then, Ryan Leonard straight up jumped Jackson Blake, which led to offsetting roughing penalties for them both.

In a tied third period, with just 6:04 left in the game, Svechnikov found the back of the net on the power play for his second goal of the game – scored with one of the filthiest backhands I’ve seen this season. It was the Hurricanes’ first lead of the night – and a lead they would maintain for the duration of the game.

With Washington pulling Thompson from the net for the extra attacker, Svechnikov had the chance to get a hat-trick, but instead passed it through the legs of Dylan Strome to Mark Jankowski for a sure goal to seal the deal.

Not long after, within the final minute of the game, Kochetkov took a try for a goalie goal, but ultimately could not get it down the ice, appearing to only launch it smack into the helmet of Aliaksei Protas.

K’Andre Miller also tried for the empty net afterward, but he, too, was unsuccessful in that attempt.

Hurricanes Notes

Following the game, head coach Rod Brind’Amour was unable to provide clear details on the extent of Hall’s upper-body injury, merely saying that it ‘doesn’t look good’.

Interestingly, during the first period, Svechnikov took a penalty during the penalty kill – a rarity, considering he isn’t on any penalty killing units. The penalty was for unsportsmanlike conduct, and put the Hurricanes at a five-on-three disadvantage. After the game, Svechnikov said that the reason was due to asking a referee why he didn’t make a call – nothing rude – though he did bang his stick, which was why he assumed it was called.

Before the game, the Hurricanes announced that their Captain, Jordan Staal, would be out for an extended period of time – with a timetable of one to two months – due to a tear in his calf, suffered during warmups against the Philadelphia Flyers Sunday night.

With his empty net goal, Jankowski is now on a five-game goal streak, while Sebastian Aho is on a seven-game point streak thanks to his assists on Svechnikov’s first goal and Jankowski’s goal.

The Hurricanes will not play until Saturday afternoon at 3:30 PM EDT, when they face the Winnipeg Jets to kick off their first game in a five-game Western Conference road trip.

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