Takeaways: Back-To-Back Penalties In Third Prove Costly, Kuznetsov's Weighs Heaviest In Capitals' 6-2 Loss To Hurricanes

WASHINGTON — As Michael Bunting went to celebrate Andrei Svechnikov's power-play goal that gave the Carolina Hurricanes a 3-2 lead over the Washington Capitals late in the third, Evgeny Kuznetsov skated over and gave him a slash. The referee took notice, Kuznetsov went to the box and from there, Carolina doubled its lead while the wheels fell off completely for the Capitals.

After a strong first period put the Capitals up 2-0, they let Carolina back in the game, and ultimately, five goals in the final seven minutes of regulation led to a 6-2 loss.

Here are all the takeaways. The full play-by-play recap can be found here.

After Seth Jarvis tied the game at 2 on a strange goal, the Capitals and Hurricanes traded some chances as things went down to the wire. Then, on a defensive zone face-off with 7:47 left in regulation, Beck Maenstyn took a poor slashing penalty, putting Carolina on the man advantage.

Then, Kuznetsov's penalty during the Hurricanes' celebration of the go-ahead goal put the team down 4-2, and it was a feat that Washington couldn't come back from.

On a 5-on-4 opportunity late in the third, the Capitals gave up the puck to former teammate Dmitry Orlov, who iced the game with an empty-netter 183 feet away. To add insult to injury, Vasily Ponomarev scored his first NHL goal with 58.2 seconds remaining in regulation, leading Joel Edmundson to break his stick over the crossbar.

It was a frustrating end to a night where the Capitals had set themselves up for success early. Washington took a 2-0 lead thanks to Nic Dowd and Dylan Strome on the power play in the first, and the team had played decently in the second as well while working to protect the lead. Ultimately, those calls made it a completely different game and tilted the ice completely in the Hurricanes' favor.

It marked the first time that the Capitals lost a game in regulation season after leading through the first 40 minutes.

While Washington giving up six unanswered goals, including five in the third, was ugly, the Capitals couldn't get much going, either, and that also set them up for defeat.

Washington managed single-digit shots in all three periods and totalled just 17 on the night, while Carolina doubled up with 34. The Hurricanes were the better of the two teams, and also ran a strong forecheck and had no problems outplaying and outpressuring D.C. in the final seven minutes and change of regulation time.

While there were a couple of good looks, including a team-leading three shots from Max Pacioretty, the Capitals couldn't generate any high-quality opportunities and didn't challenge Pyotr Kochetkov as much as they needed to, and despite the lead, it wasn't a game that the team was necessarily set up to win.

"I don't think it was close for the entire game... it never felt comfortable, it never felt like we had any momentum in that game other than on the scoreboard (after two)," head coach Spencer Carbery added postgame.

- John Carlson picked up his 500th career NHL assist in the loss. He is just the sixth active defenseman to hit that feat.

- Alex Ovechkin extended his point streak to four games with a helper of his own.