3rd Period:
The 3rd period is easily going to go down as one of the most intense periods the Hurricanes have played this season, despite there being absolutely no scoring all period. Both the Hurricanes and the Capitals had quite a few solid scoring chances, but Mrazek and Holtby stood tall in both ends.
There were quite a few intense moments in the 3rd period, especially closer to the end of the period, but perhaps the most tense of these was Warren Foegele’s boarding penalty on Capitals’ forward T.J. Oshie.
Foegele was beaten down the wing by Oshie coming into the offensive zone, and pushed Oshie at an odd angle into the boards. Oshie went down and was clearly in a significant amount of pain. The Capitals’ forward was then helped to the tunnel and missed the remainder of the game. The injury now seems to end Oshie’s season.
This fired the Capitals up, and fueled an extremely intense late-period offensive push. Holtby was pulled, giving the Capitals a man advantage for the remainder of the game. Mrazek was unflinching, however, as he made an absolutely clutch series of doorstop saves in the waning seconds of the game to propel the Hurricanes to a win, thereby tying the series up at two.
.@PMrazek34 securing the victory! 👏 pic.twitter.com/JVWxpCKCnT
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) April 19, 2019
The Hurricanes were outshot in every period, whilst being down yet another forward and still managed to pull together a win and tie up the series. With Andrei Svechnikov expected to return to the lineup for Game 5 in Washington, the Hurricanes are poised to take their first postseason series lead since 2009.
Question for CC Readers: Do you feel Warren Foegele’s boarding penalty on T.J. Oshie should be disciplined further? Why, or why not?