Carolina Hurricanes: 3 Keys to Road Victory in Game 5 in Washington

The Carolina Hurricanes have tied this series up at 2-2 and have momentum on their side after two excellent games at home, they need to win two more to move on to the second round, one has to come from the road.

In the first two games at Capital One Arena, the Carolina Hurricanes have seen the misfortune of bad officiating and saw close games slip away from them. They saw themselves in the series down 0-2 quickly and now it’s tied. How?

The Carolina Hurricanes desperately needed to tighten up the neutral zone, limit the Capitals offensive time, and improve their special teams. They’ve done just that, in Game 3, they shutout the Washington Capitals 5-0 and the highlight of appreciation goes to only allowing Washington to have one shot on goal in the 2nd period. They killed all four penalties they took, they dominated in hits 52-34, and scored twice on the power-play.

Avoiding hardship, the Hurricanes overcame the expected onslaught from the Capitals in Game 4. 17 seconds in, Warren Foegele lit the lamp early to put the Hurricanes up 1-0 early in the game. Foegele has been on fire lately, putting up 5 points in 4 games so far in this series. Foegele is now on the 2nd line and he has not disappointed so far.

In the second period, the Hurricanes were outplayed for the majority of the time. The Capitals out-shot the Hurricanes 14-9 and generated more quality chances than the Hurricanes did. The power-play for the Capitals would come through with Alexander Ovechkin scoring to tie the game because of the dreaded no stick, as Brock McGinn‘s stick was broken. Shades of Game 2.

Near the ending of the second period, despite being outplayed for most of the duration, the Capitals defense broke down as Nino Niederreiter gave a clean saucer to Teuvo Teravainen to break the tie once again and give comfort before going back to the locker room. Sebastian Aho also registered an assist on the play, giving all the forwards on the first line a point.

The Hurricanes defensive play and Petr Mrazek would steal the show in the third period, limiting the Capitals to 8 shots and Mrazek cleaning up quality chances. TJ Oshie suffered an injury in the third as he loses his balance from a Warren Foegele cross-check and is expected to miss the rest of the series.

There has been speculation about a Foegele suspension but NHL Player Safety will not be giving out a suspension to Foegele. Evgeny Kuznetsov almost tied the game late but was robbed by Petr Mrazek, with even more saves in the sequence to secure the Hurricanes tying the series 2-2.

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The Carolina Hurricanes have exceeded most expectations this season, they’ve now come from being two down in the series and now, they are going to Capital One Arena to attempt to take the lead in the series for the first time. What do they need to do?