RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Andrei Svechnikov gave the Carolina Hurricanes their breakthrough moment to continue his strong postseason, while Jack Roslovic offered his own stay-ready moment after recently being a healthy scratch.
That pushed the Hurricanes back ahead of the Washington Capitals in their second-round playoff series — along with maybe easing some of the frustration that built amid two games filled with blocked shots and turned-away chances.
Svechnikov pounced on a loose puck immediately after a faceoff to score the game’s first goal midway through the second period, while Roslovic followed with a power-play score late in the period. Those marked the start of what turned into Carolina’s romp through the final 30 minutes on the way to a 4-0 win on Saturday night in Game 3 after splitting the first two road games in the series.
“Sometimes you need those individual efforts,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We had that tonight.”
And in this case, they provided the jolt that loosened the Hurricanes’ spinning-in-mud wheels.
The Hurricanes are at their best when they’re using their depth to roll lines and pressure opponents with an aggressive forecheck that can keep the puck in the offensive zone for withering stretches and make defenders scrap for clean outlets. Yet they returned home to find the Capitals carrying the action through the first period and into the second, both in generating chances against Frederik Andersen and in keeping the puck moving against Carolina’s pressure.
Worse, it came after Carolina had managed just two 5-on-5 goals through Games 1 and 2, a combination of strong play from Logan Thompson in net and skaters repeatedly blocking shots to keep pucks from even getting to him. And the Hurricanes had their close calls, ringing the post four times through the first two games while Svechnikov twice hit the crossbar in Game 1.
It didn’t help, too, that Svechnikov pinged the top left corner of the frame against Thompson again on a first-period charge up the ice that felt familiar as the Capitals carried play.
Eventually, though, Svechnikov and Roslovic seemingly pried the lid off the net.
First it was Svechnikov springing into the circle to beat John Carlson to the puck, then zipping it past Thompson at 12:34 of the second for the game’s first goal.
“I just saw the puck kind of loose and tried to make the move closer to the puck, and got the puck and shot it,” Svechnikov said.
That made the 25-year-old one of four players in this postseason to score at least six goals.
Then there was Roslovic, who scored 22 goals in the regular season and played as the fourth-line center through the first three games of the first-round series against New Jersey. But Brind’Amour shuffled the lineup for Game 4 and went with Mark Jankowski, who held the role for the final two games against the Devils and then for the Game 1 win against Washington before exiting with an undisclosed injury.
Roslovic returned for Thursday’s Game 2 loss, then came through in a big way Saturday night with a multipoint night while centering the second line. He broke through on the power play by taking a feed from Brent Burns up top, then sent the puck off skittering through an opening off Thompson’s right leg with 1:03 left for the 2-0 lead.
He also assisted on Eric Robinson’s goal early in the third that pushed the margin to 3-0.
“I don’t really want to get too deep into it,” Roslovic said of the emotions of being a healthy scratch in the playoffs. “But just always be ready and try to help the team win.”
And just like that, the Hurricanes held a 2-1 series lead with Game 4 looming here Monday night.
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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
