Dylan Strome said he felt that the Hurricanes were in the referees' ear quite a bit in an eventual 4-2 loss for the Capitals.
The Washington Capitals were minutes away from escaping PNC Arena with at least a point after a lopsided outing with the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday, but a questionable call with 2:19 left gave Carolina a late power-play opportunity, where it converted to send D.C. home empty-handed.
Rasmus Sandin was called for a hook as Sebastian Aho tripped on his way to the net after being hit by Darcy Kuemper's stick clearing the puck out of the crease, leading to Spencer Carbery and Dylan Strome both shouting testimonies from the bench and arguing the call to referee Corey Syvret.
Still, Syvret made his decision, and it gave the Hurricanes their second power play of the period that they capitalized on en route to a 4-2 win that kept Washington out of playoff position.
Postgame, Carbery reiterated to reporters that it was the wrong call.
"Yeah I mean Corey, it's just when he watches it back, he'll see what everybody else saw, and he's on the back side of that, too," Carbery said in Raleigh. "He's — you're guessing at that point, because you don't have the sight line to be able to see there. And if you watch the replay, it's actually Kuemper, it's not Sandin, it's Kuemper and the puck is there and he goes to swipe at the puck and that's what gets Aho's skate. So yeah, it's the wrong call."
One minute before that, Nick Jensen had been tripped by Evgeny Kuznetsov, a play that went uncalled. For Dylan Strome, it was an indicator that the referees were "letting things go" and putting away their whistles, so the late call was a surprise.
"For the most part, at 5-on-5, we kept them to the outside and limited their chances. Unfortunately, they get two on the power play, obviously you saw our reaction after that last call," Strome said. "I felt like the puck was past the net and there was a bunch of sticks in there and he kind of trips after the puck's gone, and that play happens so many times in a game, it's disappointing. I felt like they were letting a lot of things go in the third, both ways and then with 2:18 left, they call that one. It's a tough pill to swallow."
Strome added that he also felt that the game was starting to be called in the Hurricanes' favor as time went on.
"We gotta keep our composure, I guess, but these are important games, important times of the year. I just thought that they were letting it go, and it felt like ever since we scored O's second goal when they did the automatic offside, I felt like their bench was really in the ref's ear," Strome added. "It felt like they were kind of talking to them quite often and you felt like calls were gonna swing their way. so it's unfortunate. That's hockey sometimes... We put ourselves in not a great position by getting penalties, and that's hockey sometimes."
Tom Wilson called the circumstances "unfortunate," which resulted in D.C. not being able to secure at least a point to get back into a playoff position.
"It's a crappy feeling," he said simply.
Ultimately, the Capitals were outshot 45-16 in the loss, and the Hurricanes went 2-for-4 on the man advantage.
Washington is right back in action on Sunday and got some help from the out-of-town scoreboard with the Philadelphia Flyers and Detroit Red Wings losing in regulation, so the playoffs are still in reach with six games remaining.
"No time to dwell," Strome said.