April 20, 2019 “Washington” in the fifth match of the first round of the Stanley Cup with a score of 6: 0 made “Carolina” and came close to the conference semi-finals. After that – how cut off. The Capitals lost to Hurricanes the next two meetings and sensationally flew out their playoffs, and then burned them out twice more in the next regular season. Yes, in the exhibition matches of 2019, the team of Alexander Ovechkin twice defeated the team of Andrei Svechnikov, but how can you take seriously the games in which the teams almost always look as experimental as possible, and the result does not matter. In official confrontations, it seemed that Washington began to take shape at the Carolina complex.
In the first period of Friday’s slaughter in Raleigh, the feeling was that Todd Rirden’s team was ready to get even more bogged down in this swamp. On shots on target, the guests gave this segment 7–18 – if it weren’t for Ilya Samsonov, the Capitals could seriously approach another failure in a meeting with an uncomfortable opponent. But the Russian goalkeeper was dragging. Dragged using his own mask.
And after such unpleasant throws from almost close range.
As a result, 0-0 in the first period, the most unusual episode of which happened simultaneously with the final siren. In the Hurricane zone, a small mess occurred, Brendan Laipsik laid Svechnikov on the ice, and Nick Daud did not think of anything better than throwing a stick of a Russian prodigy onto the podium. The judges did not appreciate the impulse, punishing the American with 10 minutes of a fine.
Well, at the beginning of the second twenty-minute “Washington” quickly turned this match up. The first goal attack of the evening started after the next Samsonov save – the guests rushed off to the “rocket” counterattack, Lars Eller pushed through the defender and threw, and Richard Panik added. A few minutes later, the Russian goalkeeper repeated his trick – the Capitals mostly gave Dougie a 1 to 0 exit to Hamilton, Ilya sheathed it, and soon John Carlson drew a magic transfer to Evgeni Kuznetsov – 2-0.
At the start of the third period, “Carolina” snapped a goal with the participation of Svechnikov. Andrei fell face to face with Samsonov, but did not manage to outplay his compatriot, after which he decided to share the puck with Brett Pesci – a throw, Jordan Staal’s correction and return of intrigue.
But Washington was not about to lose again to this young and daring gang. The guests fired a doublet again. Eller finished off the puck into an empty corner after a mighty throw by Ovechkin, and Kuznetsov recalled that he himself had complete order with cool assistants – Yakub Vrana was definitely satisfied.
Caps didn’t do without Validol for fans anyway – Hurricanes managed to realize the majority twice, and Svechnikov scored another scoring point. But “Washington” still retained a minimal advantage and finally avenged “Carolina” for the playoffs-2019. So far he has partially revenge, but now Ovechkin and the company at least know that this opponent can be defeated.
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