Carolina rallies
Jordan Staal (above) scored the go-ahead goal and added an assist in the third period, and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Washington Capitals 5-2 on Monday night to force Game 7 in their first-round playoff series.
RALEIGH, N.C. — Jordan Staal scored the go-ahead goal and added an assist in the third period, and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Washington Capitals 5-2 on Monday night to force Game 7 in their first-round playoff series.
Justin Williams scored an insurance goal seconds after the Capitals had the tying goal disallowed, Warren Foegele and Teuvo Teravainen also scored, Dougie Hamilton added an empty-netter and Petr Mrazek made 23 saves.
The Hurricanes scored three third-period goals in bouncing back from a 6-0 beatdown in Game 5 and prolonging their first playoff appearance in a decade by one game at least.
Game 7 is Wednesday night in Washington. The winner will play the New York Islanders in the second round.
Alex Ovechkin scored for the third consecutive game, Brett Connolly also scored and Braden Holtby stopped 31 shots.
Washington — which won 10 road games a year ago on its run to the first Stanley Cup title in club history — went 0-3 on the road in this series after winning both regular-season meetings in Raleigh.
Staal gave the Hurricanes their first lead of the game at 3:51 of the third period, following a scramble in front of Holtby. Justin Faulk uncorked a shot from the point and Brock McGinn and Staal both poked at it, with Staal ultimately slipping it past the Capitals goalie to make it 3-2.
Then came the key momentum swing of this one — the waved-off goal that Washington thought should have counted.
As Evgeny Kuznetsov tried to tuck the puck under Mrazek’s pads with 9:26 remaining, Ovechkin crashed into the goalie. The officials waved it off, ruling that the Capitals’ captain interfered with Mrazek by pushing his pad.
Williams then put Carolina up by two goals 84 seconds later by tipping Brett Pesce’s shot past Holtby and Hamilton extended the lead with his empty-netter with 3:06 left.
By that point, the Capitals’ frustrations hit their breaking point, with Ovechkin receiving a slashing penalty and a game misconduct with 1:08 remaining.
At no point during the first five games of this series did the road team ever lead. Connolly ended that pesky bit of trivia early in this one by scoring at 5:06 of the first.
And Ovechkin’s fourth goal of the series — and his third in three games — put the Capitals up 2-1 with 4:48 left in the first when he waited for Jaccob Slavin to slide past him, then beat Mrazek from a tough stick-side angle.
But they didn’t score again — and the Hurricanes kept pushing back.
First, Foegele made it 1-1 when he beat Holtby with a spinning shot from the slot with 9:25 left in the first, giving him four goals in three home games in the series. He’s the second player in club history with four home goals in a series, joining Mark Hunter —
who did it with the Whalers against Boston in 1991.
And Teravainen pulled Carolina to 2-2 at 1:56 of the second. Sebastian Aho swiped the puck from Jonas Siegenthaler behind the net and passed to Teravainen in the slot.
STARS 2, PREDATORS 1, OT
DALLAS — John Klingberg scored from the left circle 17:02 into overtime and the Dallas Stars beat the Nashville Predators to wrap up their first-round Western Conference playoff series in six games.
Klingberg’s first goal of the playoffs came on a cross-ice pass from Alexander Radulov.
The win by the Stars came 11 years after the previous time they clinched a playoff series on home ice. They needed overtime for a 2-1 victory in that Game 6 as well — four overtimes to beat San Jose in the second round of the 2008 playoffs.
The Stars will play St. Louis in the second round of these playoffs, just as they did in their previous postseason appearance three years ago. The Blues, who have home-ice advantage this time, won that 2016 series with a Game 7 win in Dallas.
Ben Bishop, Vezina Trophy finalist, had a playoff career-high 47 saves for the Stars.