Hurricanes Clinch Playoffs In Spirited Win Over Capitals

The Carolina Hurricanes clinched a seventh consecutive playoff berth Wednesday night at Lenovo Center, and they made a statement doing it.

"We know now that we're in," said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour. "That was official and I like that we went and took it. We didn't just get it handed to us."

Not only did the Canes defeat the league-leading Washington Capitals 5-1, but they also proved that they weren't afraid to stand up for themselves either in what devolved into a violent, chaotic mess.

In total, the two teams combined for 142 penalty minutes and eight players were ejected with misconducts before the game was even over.

WSH: Tom Wilson, Nic Dowd, Brandon Duhaime, Connor McMichael
CAR: Logan Stankoven, Mark Jankowski, Tyson Jost, Jalen Chatfield

"That's hockey," said Seth Jarvis. "It's fun, it's competitive. At some point, you just kind of want to go home, but yeah. Everyone was sticking up for each other and I'm really, really proud of the guys in here and how we handled that. Not taking any stuff from the other team."

Right off the bat, the Hurricanes looked the better team, as they dominated the early possession and netted three goals before the Capitals even managed three shots on goal.

Sean Walker started off the party just 6:14 into the game, picking off a Jakub Chychrun outlet pass and then rifling home his shot past Logan Thompson.

And things just escalated from there, as the power play — which has started to heat up after an abysmal stretch — converted three separate times.

"I told you before, the power play is kind of hot right now,' Jarvis said. "We're starting to figure it out a little bit more. I think we've all been kind of in the same spots now for a little while so we're all getting comfortable with each other. It's nice to see we're scoring different ways on the power play."

Jackson Blake netted two power play tallies for his first career multi-goal game, potting home a hot rebound in the first period and then roofing a nasty backhander in the third period.

"I obviously just try to play my game and do the things that I can to help provide for this team and thankfully that one went in," Blake said. "It was a great faceoff play by Jarvy there just getting it to me and I just had one guy to beat and then the goalie. That one felt good obviously. Like you said, I was definitely snake bitten for a while there and so to get these are nice, but hopefully I'll just keep on going."

Seth Jarvis scored the other PPG on a one-timer blast, hitting the 30 goal milestone in the process.

Speaking of power play goals, Alex Ovechkin also moved closer to breaking Wayne Gretzky's all-time goal scoring record as he rocketed home his patented left circle one-timer on a 5v3 opportunity.

It was also a big night for Logan Stankoven who not only scored for the second game in a row on a top-corner snipe, but he also stood up to Wilson after the latter violently cross-checked Walker from behind (the second Canes defenseman he viciously struck that night).

Stankoven immediately went in at Wilson and the two devolved into a pileup against the glass before eventually being broken up and each sent off for the remainder of the game.

"I just think it doesn't matter who it is," Stankoven said. "If guys are going to push our guys around, then I'm going to be there to step in. Obviously I'm a smaller guy and I'm not looking to stir anything up, but I think I'm going to stand my ground and stand up for my teammates."

I can't imagine many mismatches bigger than Stankoven (5-foot-8, 165lb) and Wilson (6-foot-4, 225lb), but it shows that the kid has heart and is already endearing himself to the team and room.

"I love that for Stanky,' Jarvis said. "He's putting on for us little guys. He did a great job of standing in there. That's just no fear and that's a big part of being a smaller player in the NHL. I think there's no bigger showcase than probably going against Tom Wilson in a scenario like that."

Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov did not play in the third period Wednesday night and Brind'Amour didn't have too much of an update on his status, although he did say that he didn't think it was anything too serious.

"I don't think it's too serious," Brind'Amour said. "It was just, again, we're in that situation where it didn't feel right so we just took him out. We'll know more tomorrow hopefully. Hopefully it's not serious."

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