Sometimes, a team faces a “line-in-the-sand” kind of game during the season, and the Washington Capitals had one Thursday.
The Caps had lost their past three games and six straight at home at Capital One Center. They had fallen out of the top three spots in the Metropolitan Division and into the second wild-card playoff position in the Eastern Conference.
It was desperation time.
In came the Carolina Hurricanes, the Metro leaders. The Canes left the losers Thursday after a 4-0 beating from the Caps, headed back to Raleigh to face the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday with some questions of their own.
Caps goalie Vitek Vanecek won his first game since shutting out Dallas on Jan. 28, blanking the Canes with 36 saves. It was his third shutout of the season.
Little went right for Carolina (37-12-5), which lost both games of their two-game road trip after an overtime loss in Detroit. The Canes seemed a step slow and their mental focus not very sharp much of the game. Goalie Frederik Andersen, involved in a big collision in the first period, took just his eighth loss of the season.
The Canes took too many penalties — again — but couldn’t bail themselves out with their top-ranked penalty kill in this game. The Caps’ Evgeny Kuznetsov scored a 5-on-3 power-play goal in the first period and the Alex Ovechkin on a 5-on-4 in the second.
Ovechkin’s goal, on a scorching one-timer from the top of the left circle, was his 33rd of the season and the 763rd of his career. He needs three more goals to tie Jaromir Jagr for third place on the NHL’s all-time list.
Defenseman Martin Fehervary also had a second-period score for the Caps (28-19-9), who were able to get to the middle of the ice and controlled the pace of play while Vanecek took care of business. Dmitry Orlov scored late in regulation just after a Caps power play expired.
Forward Martin Necas, without a goal in 17 straight games, gave the the Canes some active, energized play. But there wasn’t enough jump elsewhere in the lineup, which had forward Derek Stepan drawing back in and Seth Jarvis made the healthy scratch.
The Canes had their power-play chances but appeared disjointed with the man advantage and couldn’t muster anything dangerous. They got off 17 shots in the third, but Vanecek weathered it.
Canes forward Teuvo Teravainen had a nine-game point streak, the longest of his career, end Thursday and Sebastian Aho could not extend his seven-game streak.
