Takeaways: Despite slow start, Hurricanes run away with Game 3
After a sluggish start for the home side in Raleigh, the Hurricanes regained their game and ran away with all the momentum in a 4-0 victory to take a 2-1 series lead at home.
As the cliché goes, you’ve got to play a full 60 minutes if you want to win in the playoffs.
But as the Carolina Hurricanes learned on Saturday night, sometimes a solid 30 will do just fine. After a sluggish start for the home side in Raleigh, the Hurricanes regained their game and ran away with all the momentum in a 4-0 victory to take a 2-1 series lead at home. The victory brings them to a perfect 4-0 record on home ice so far this post-season.
Here’s what we learned from the matchup.
Hurricanes hit another gear, Capitals can’t keep up
Raleigh’s Lenovo Centre is notoriously unwelcoming to visiting teams, but for much of the first half of Saturday’s matchup between Carolina and Washington, the Capitals looked right at home. As the third game of the second-round series got underway, all the momentum sided with the visitors, whose possession-heavy game looked a lot like the one we usually see from the Hurricanes.
Carolina looked out of sync and low-energy, while the Capitals outshot, outskated, and just generally outplayed the Hurricanes at their own game. Though, despite several golden opportunities, Washington couldn’t cash in. Even with zeros on the scoresheet after the first frame of the game, it was clear the Capitals had control at that point. It felt like only a matter of time until they’d be rewarded.
Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour didn’t mince words when asked during the broadcast what he thought of his team’s effort at the midway point of the matchup.
“We haven’t gotten to (our game) all night. We’re hanging in right now,” Brind’Amour said on the bench during a break in play halfway through the second period. “We’ve got to find another gear.”
Maybe everyone on the bench was listening, because it didn’t take long for his team to do exactly that. Less than three minutes later, Andrei Svechnikov opened the scoring with an unassisted marker off an offensive zone faceoff 12:34 into the second period.
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There was no question the game belonged to Carolina from that point on. Jack Roslovic scored a power-play goal six minutes later to go up 2-0, and the third period brought two more with Eric Robinson and Jackson Blake contributing one each.
Carolina controlled the play entirely for the second half of the matchup, going back to their high-possession ways and clogging up the neutral zone, allowing Washington very little room to regain any semblance of momentum for themselves. After registering just six shots in the first period, Carolina held Washington to only six in each of the second and third periods.
Andersen’s first-period heroics lead to Game 3 shutout victory
Svechnikov was a major driver in this matchup, but we’d be talking about an entirely different hockey game if not for the first-period heroics of Carolina goaltender Frederik Andersen. Andersen was tested early and often on Saturday, with Washington teeing up a handful of scoring opportunities in the first frame to no avail.
It wasn’t the busiest night for Andersen, in the end — he saw 21 shots — but it was one of his best considering the stakes and the sluggish start for the rest of his team. Andersen stood tall all game, stopping all 21 of the Capitals’ chances for his fourth career playoff shutout and his first as a member of the Hurricanes. Goaltending has been a major storyline in this series so far, with Logan Thompson and Andersen taking turns starring, both netminders sitting atop the league leaders in post-season save percentages going into this game.
Injuries and health issues have prevented Andersen from being at his best in post-seasons past, and he even had an injury scare in the first round against the Devils. So, to see him step up in such a big way, playing with poise even when the rest of the team lacked it, is a major victory within a big win for Carolina.
Martinook’s contributions shift the momentum for Hurricanes
You won’t see his name on Saturday’s score sheet, but Jordan Martinook stood out as one of Carolina’s top contributors in Game 3 thanks to a few energy-boosting, momentum-shifting plays.
Mere moments before Svechnikov got the Hurricanes on the board, Martinook had the home crowd on its feet with a big hit on Capitals forward Tom Wilson in the Capitals’ zone that noticeably shifted the vibe of the game. The crowd loved it and showed their appreciation, and the rink buzzed as Sebastian Aho took the faceoff that led to Svechnikov’s game-opening score. The goal was the reward, but the shift in momentum was all Martinook.
Then, midway through the third period of what was at that point a 3-0 Carolina lead, Martinook kept Andersen’s shutout bid intact with a massive shot block on a point-plank chance from Pierre-Luc Dubois. Dubois had a wide-open net on his one-timer, and if not for Martinook’s incredible sprawling effort to send the puck careening in the opposite direction, he would’ve had a sure goal.
Unfortunately, Martinook may have been injured on that play. He was noticeably hurting as he left the ice hunched over, and went to the locker room. All eyes will be on the heart-and-soul member of the Hurricanes, and whether he’ll miss any time, as the series now looks ahead to Game 4.
