For the second straight game, the Carolina Hurricanes couldn't finish a game in regulation and for the second straight game, they came away with only a single point.
After losing 6-5 to the Nashville Predators Friday night, the Canes played a much tighter game against the Washington Capitals, but once the verdict was reached, they found themselves in the same boat regardless.
However, unlike that game against Nashville, there were a lot of things to like in the way Carolina played.
"We did everything we wanted to do, we just didn't score," said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour. "If I look back at that game, we knew coming exactly how it was going to go just based on how they've played all year. They've played tight, tight games and I thought we stuck to our game plan really well, hit a few goal posts. So a few inches here or there, it could be a much different story. Overall I liked it.
For one, the team actually played a solid 5v5 game, generating a good amount of chances and not really surrendering that many.
They also had another strong outing by Pyotr Kochetkov, who stopped 20 shots in the loss.
"He was really good," Brind'Amour said. "Had to make a couple of big ones and he did. Allowed us to just keep playing and gave us a great chance to win."
Since being pulled from the Edmonton game on Dec. x, Kochetkov is 2-1-0 with a 0.943 save percentage and 1.48 goals against. He's also only allowed a single goal in three straight game.
The Russian netminder continues to build his game at the NHL level and is moving closer and closer to becoming that reliable starter.
Offensively, it wasn't the worst.
The power play did technically put a puck into the back of the net, however it was deemed by illegal actions as Stefan Noesen interfered with Darcy Kuemper, AKA Joel Edmundson back Noesen up into Kuemper.
It was a beautiful play too with Martin Necas threading a pass across to Brady Skjei, but them's the breaks sometimes.
The power play did generate some more, Sebastian Aho hit a post on a redirect (Carolina in total hit the frame of the net three times over the span of the game), but Kuemper battled hard throughout the night.
"I think the effort was there," Aho said. "The 5v5 game, like I said, was good enough to win this hockey game obviously. You wish you could score on a few more of those chances. I don't think the power play was that bad, but obviously you just gotta score in this game."
Aho did eventually get one by him as Seth Jarvis blocked a clearing attempt in the corner and then found Aho standing all alone in the slot, but the Canes would give it right back with another botched defensive coverage.
Necas vacated the middle of the ice while facing a Capitals' rush and his assignment, Martin Fehervary was able to skate right down the middle of the ice and rip a shot glove high on Kochetkov.
So while the Canes were getting looks, a bad play put them right back to square one.
The game went to overtime, which ended up being the most boring waste of time ever as Washington just killed the clock playing keepaway and reloading in the neutral zone for nearly four straight minutes and then Carolina missed on all three shootout attempts.
The Hurricanes have at least gotten points in four straight, but with the Vegas Golden Knights coming to town, it'll be a much tougher game.
"Another huge game for us," Aho said. "Going to practice tomorrow, go over this game, try to take a couple of learners and some good things and move on. Obviously if you want to be a champ you got to beat the champ. So it's a big one for us."
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