Hurricanes dominate Capitals on home ice to win Game 3, take 2-1 series lead

Chip Alexander and Luke DeCock, The News & Observer on May 10, 2025

Published in Hockey

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RALEIGH, N.C. — When it comes to the Stanley Cup playoffs, Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour likes to say, “You live and die every day.”

Win a game and you’re living large. Lose and it can seem too harsh. Such is the ebb and flow when the games mean so much.

The Hurricanes enjoyed that winning feeling again Saturday, surging to a 4-0 victory over the Washington Capitals to take a 2-1 lead in their second-round Eastern Conference series.

Goalie Frederik Andersen was tested early by the Caps, who had a strong start in Game 3, but calmly made the saves and controlled his crease the rest of the way as Canes fans at Lenovo Center often chanted “Fred-die! Fred-die!” as he notched his fourth career playoff shutout.

Andrei Svechnikov and Jack Roslovic scored in the second period — Svechnikov with a snipe and Roslovic on the power play. Eric Robinson and Jackson Blake then did the same in the third — Robinson with a top-shelf beauty of a shot past goalie Logan Thompson and Blake with the power-play goal.

Andersen did the rest as the Canes allowed the Caps few good offensive chances in the final period.

After splitting the first two games of the series in Washington, D.C., the Canes returned to a rollicking Lenovo Center and will host Game 4 on Monday at 7 p.m.

The game Saturday was one with some big, helmet-rattling hits, including one for the aged: Canes defenseman Brent Burns ramming into the Caps’ Alex Ovechkin and sending him to the ice. That was a 40-year-old banging into a 39-year-old, not to mention two of the biggest players on the ice.

In the second, Canes’ forward Jordan Martinook knocked Washington’s Tom Wilson down in the Caps zone, leaving Wilson to slowly skate back to his bench.

But that’s what the game called for as the teams sought that first goal, a chance to get ahead and make the other team start to chase.

And Svechnikov got that first one. After Canes center Sebastian Aho won a draw, Svechnikov hopped on the puck and quickly sniped one past Thompson with 7:26 left in the period.

Svechnikov had beaten Thompson with a shot in the first period, only to have the puck miss the far post. He didn’t miss on the second, scoring his sixth of the playoffs.

The Canes pushed the lead to 2-0 late in the second after Canes winger Jackson Blake was hooked and dumped to the ice. Roslovic beat Thompson with a shot from the left dot, jacking up the decibel count with 1:03 left in the period.

The second period ended with Canes fans booing — the refs. Jordan Staal was called for high-sticking Trevor van Riemsdyk, and replays shown on the big board had Brind’Amour as livid as Canes fans.

The Caps had 1:15 of power-play time to begin the third but the Canes killed off the penalty.

Then, Robinson struck. Skating in from the left wing, the fourth-line winger beat Thompson with a shot that hit the shaft of Thompson’s stick and banged under the bar.

With the last change at home, Brind’Amour started the Staal line against the Pierre-Luc Dubois line that had Wilson and Connor McMichael on the wings. That left Aho’s line matched against Dylan Strome’s line with Ovechkin on the left wing.

Not liking that look, after Ovechkin had a dangerous first period and three shots, Brind’Amour flipped the two matchups in the second period while also shuffling his lines.

Brind’Amour moved Blake to Jesperi Kotkaniemi’s line as Seth Jarvis moved up. William Carrier was moved to the Staal line to replace Jarvis, who might have had his most active game of the series.

For the third straight game, neither team could break through and score in the first.

Not that the opening period was without plays that had Canes fans roaring.

On a delayed penalty against Burns, Thompson left the net for an extra Caps attacker. But the Caps’ Nic Dowd, handling the puck behind the Canes net, attempted a centering pass that missed everyone and sailed out of zone.

The puck skidded down the length of the ice toward an empty net, only to miss the cage by a foot or so to the left — a near own-goal that could have been deflating for the Caps, who had a strong first period, and would have been a huge break for the Canes.

Moments later, Jarvis took a pass from Sean Walker and was off on a short-handed breakaway. Jarvis tried to lift a backhander, but Thompson warded off the puck with his glove in arguably the most critical save of the first three games to that point.

Earlier in the period, Svechnikov swept in from the right wing and backhanded a shot that beat Thompson but hit the post. Again, Canes fans were ready to erupt but were left with groans.

The Caps had their chances in the first. Early in the game, Wilson skated in alone and tried to ease a shot through Andersen’s pads, only to be stopped,

Ovechkin, quiet in the first two games, was more engaged and tested Andersen three or four times in the opening period. Andersen again made the stops, leaving Ovechkin again showing frustration.