Dmitry Orlov scored twice and Martin Necas provided a goal and two assists Sunday as the surging Carolina Hurricanes cooled off the visiting Washington Capitals with a 4-2 win in Raleigh, N.C.
The Hurricanes clinched their sixth straight victory on Andrei Svechnikov’s empty-net goal with 8 seconds remaining. The Capitals went with an extra attacker with about 1:25 left but couldn’t find the tying tally against Pyotr Kochetkov, who stopped 19 shots for Carolina.
Charlie Lindgren made 41 saves for Washington, which had its three-game win streak snapped despite goals from Alex Ovechkin and Brandon Duhaime. The Capitals entered Sunday’s game with eight victories to match the best 10-game start to a season in team history.
Washington led 2-1 after the first period but managed 12 shots the rest of the game. The Hurricanes, who had not played since Thursday night, won despite going 0-for-3 on power plays.
Necas evened the score 2:29 into the second period with his sixth goal of the season and had the first assist on Orlov’s tally at 5:26 that gave Carolina the lead for good. Necas has a six-game points streak that includes five goals and 10 assists.
Orlov opened the scoring at 14:01 in the first period on his second goal this season, which came off of Necas’ first assist.
Later in the first period, Ovechkin extended his goal streak to four games with his seventh of the season, a power-play score that evened the game at 1-1. Dylan Strome’s secondary assist on Ovechkin’s goal pushed his team-leading assist total to 13.
Just 33 seconds after Ovechkin’s score, Duhaime’s second tally this season gave the Capitals a 2-1 lead 11 seconds before intermission.
The Hurricanes held a 31-15 edge in shots through two periods and improved to 3-1-0 at home this season.
The teams meet three more times in the regular season.
–Field Level Media
