The Canes held off Washington on Sunday for a big division win.
Aside from a blip at the end of the first period, the Carolina Hurricanes put on another clinical performance in a 3-2 win over the Washington Capitals in Raleigh on Sunday.
With the Capitals coming in riding the high of an 8-2-0 start, the contest represented an early opportunity to jockey for positioning in the Metropolitan Division.
Carolina started off on the right foot, earning 9 of the game’s first 10 shots on goal, and that momentum paid off when Dmitry Orlov ripped a writer high to the glove side past Charlie Lindgren to give the Canes a 1-0 lead on his old team.
The Hurricanes continued to excel until Martin Necas and Shayne Gostisbehere were called for simultaneous penalties, which set Washington up with a two-minute five-on-three advantage. The Canes nearly killed the whole thing, but Alex Ovechkin wired home a one-timer in the most vintage way possible to tie the score.
A defensive breakdown gave the Capitals a 2-1 lead, as Brandon Duhaime poked one home off a fire-drill in front of the Carolina net to give Washington the lead heading into the first intermission.
The Hurricanes tilted the ice back their way in the second period, as Martin Necas continued his torrid start to the season with a silky smooth backhand finish on a break against Lindgren to tie the game back up at two.
Orlov proved to be a thorn in his former team’s side once again, with another shot high to the glove side off a feed from Necas, who picked up his third point of the night.
That lead made it into the third period, and the Hurricanes easily killed off an early power play bid by the Capitals.
As the third wore on, the Hurricanes played their best stretch of the night, dominating the shots and chances while the Caps would have liked to apply significant pressure in search of an equalizer.
Washington couldn’t even get on even footing until under two minutes left, and when they finally did, Kochetkov came up big with a save from in close against Connor McMichael and a stop on a writer from just beyond the circle by Ovechkin.
Andrei Svechnikov put the icing on the cake with an empty netter with eight seconds left, and the Hurricanes ran their record to 8-2-0 on the season.
Kochetkov stopped 21 of 23 shots in the winning effort.