Canes fail to fight for win in loss against Capitals – Technician

It was a battle in the Lenovo Center Tuesday night. One side came out bloodied, and the other walked away victorious.

Coming off a four-game winning streak, the Carolina Hurricanes (11-5-0) hoped to stay hot versus the Washington Capitals (8-7-1). After the final horn rang in Lenovo Center, the streak died, ready to be restarted come Friday.

In the Canes’ previous game, defenseman Charles-Alexis Legault injured his hand after punching the skate of Maple Leafs left winger Nick Robinson during a scrum. Medics from both sides rushed to him when they saw the spots of red littered on the white ice, quickly wrapping his hand with towels and taking him out of the game. It was later announced that Legault tore multiple extensor tendons and is expected to be out for three to four months, according to the team’s general manager, Eric Tulsky.

Both injuries and fights seem to have become a common occurrence associated with Carolina this season. Their match against the Capitals further proved that.

Barely a minute after puck drop, defenseman K’Andre Miller was sent into the penalty box, awarding the Capitals a two-minute power play. Five minutes later, forward Brandon Duhaime, with help from fellow forwards Ethen Frank and Nic Dowd, scored the Caps’ first goal of the night.

Much to the dismay of Carolina, Washington broke out in the game strongly. The Caps — known for their team coordination and aggressive playing style — looked like they were skating laps around Carolina. Nearly halfway through the first period, the Caps had twice the number of shots on goal, with eight compared to the Canes’ four.

“I think when you play a team so many times, rivalries come up,” said center Logan Stankoven. “Not sure if you can call this a rivalry or not, but there’s a lot of physicality. It’s big boy hockey out there. I enjoy playing that type of hockey.”

Aggravated after a less-than-ideal first eight minutes, defenseman Mike Reilly was sent into the penalty box for tripping Frank.

That was just a taste of what was soon to come.

Fifteen minutes in, a recurring character of the game, Dowd, slammed into goaltender Frederik Andersen, knocking him down onto the ice. Dowd forgot the number one rule of hockey: never hit the goaltender. After Andersen was knocked down, defenseman Sean Walker joined the altercation and escalated the scrum. In a matter of seconds, both teams were bunched behind the Canes’ goal. Punches were thrown, and helmets were ripped off.

While the majority of both teams were jumbled in one spot, off to the right of the goal were Stankoven and forward Jackson Blake, fighting with Caps defenseman Martin Fehérváry. The fight progressed to just Stankoven and Fehérváry as they pushed, pulled and punched. Split up by the officials, Stankoven was left with a bleeding face from a cut above his eye, which later resulted in stitches.

“When you see a teammate down like that, they try to push us around. I’m not going to stand for that, so I just tried to jump in there, and next thing you know, the gloves are off,” Stankoven commented.

The game paused with five minutes remaining in the period, and the officials began handing out penalties to both teams. Fehérváry, Andersen and Stankoven were all penalized for roughing or fighting, while Dowd was penalized for interference.

After an eventful first period, the Capitals scored their second goal with a snapshot by forward Dylan Strome, assisted by defenseman John Carlson, along with forward and all-time top scorer in the NHL, Alex Ovechkin, five minutes into the second period. The puck came from the left side of Andersen to make it into the back of the net, a tight shot barely missing the side post.

Soon after, it looked as if another fight was going to break out when Ovechkin reached around forward Sebastian Aho’s face to yank him back by the neck, a rare sight to see from Aho, who usually stays away from fights on the ice. The altercation was quickly split up by the officials in fear of a repeat from the first period.

Down two, Carolina scrambled to try and level the score. Forward Nikolaj Ehlers answered their prayers and scored in the 14th minute, assisted by Blake and defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere. While both sides’ players were recovering from an attempt on the other end of the ice, Ehlers took possession of the puck and flew down the ice. Caught off guard by the sudden shift in play, Washington trailed behind them to defend and assist their goaltender Logan Thompson, but they couldn’t stop the puck from a rebound off the stick of Ehlers to put the Canes on the board.

The third period mirrored the previous two as the Caps scored early in the sixth minute to make the game 3-1. Defenseman Jakob Chychrun, with help from fellow defenseman John Carlson and forward Ryan Leonard, won the face-off to shoot the puck down the middle into the back of the net.

With a mere five minutes left in the game, another injury cursed the Hurricanes. Andersen was knocked down again, but this time, he had to be taken off the ice and was replaced by netminder Pyotr Kochetkov.

Thirty seconds before the last horn blew, Ovechkin scored the final goal of the game into an empty net, closing up the game 4-1.

“They made it hard on us, and, you know, two teams play a pretty similar game,” said Aho. “I think they played a good game, and we’re obviously nowhere we need to be.”

The Carolina Hurricanes are set to play the Vancouver Canucks at the Lenovo Center on Nov. 14. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.