We were back on our home ice for a must win Game 5, boys had to leave it all out on the ice for a chance at tomorrow, but tomorrow will not come this time around as the Capitals see their season end at home with the final score being 3-1 in favor of the Carolina Hurricanes.
I said before the game if the Caps want a real chance to extend the series they would have to score first, but that wouldn’t happen tonight. The Canes in our zone outworked us again for the puck and that old Jordan Staal sniped it past Logan Thompson for the 1-0 lead…..not great.
Anthony Beauvillier who I don’t think I saw him take a shift off all series out hustled the Canes for the puck and was able to get the puck past the Cane’s goalie for the equalizer to tie the game at 1.
Then we it looked like we took the lead off the stick of Matt Roy the Canes called a timeout then challenge the goal and it was ruled no goal after the Caps entered the zone clearly offsides. Such a brutal goal taken off the board after the barn was buzzin then you could hear the air taken out of the arena, huge momentum swing not in our favor.
Then in the 3rd the Canes got a nice outlet pass that caused a 3v2 rush where Andrei Svechnikov dished it to the d-man then got it right back to Andrei who ripped it on net and somehow it snuck through a post hugging LT for the go ahead goal, 2-1 Canes. A goal that LT has to have even though he played solid tonight.
Then the Canes got the empty netter via Seth Jarvis, series over.
The boys had a lot of high scoring chances tonight more than most of the games this series especially when Jakub Chychryn rang one of the crossbar in the 1st period.
As I mentioned before LT played great tonight and none more than this spectacular save one might say Holtby esq. We also saw some puck luck where a Cane’s player took a shot and it hit ever post behind LT and somehow did not go in the net.
As mentioned we had our chances especially having 3 power-plays but went 0-3 in those 5v4 chances, just can’t happen in a must win game.
I loved that Spencer Carbery made some changes in the lineup especially scratching Eller and putting McMichael at his center spot. Something had to be done to mix it up in a must win game.
The Canes were just plain and simple the better team this series and deserved the win as much as it hates me to see their fans happy. If they keep playing like this I would be shocked if they didn’t have a great chance to hoist Lord Stanley.
It sucks that the season is over but we saw history from Ovechkin and this team outperformed its expectations by miles!
With the season ending we have to look at guys that contracts are up, Mangiapane, Beauvillier, and Eller. I see them definitely bringing back Mangi and Beau especially Beau the way he played in the playoffs.
It’s been a pleasure writing for this team every year but especially this one being able to follow the Gr8Chase. Till next season friends!
The Morning Skate 
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