The Canes had their back up against the wall going into Game 6. They were coming off, unarguably, one of their worst performances of the postseason. Nothing went right for the Canes in Game 5.
Game 6, however, provided the Canes with an opportunity for a fresh start. They returned home to PNC Arena, a place where the Canes had previously won Games 3 and 4. A place where the Canes won Game 3 by a 5-0 score. A place home to the loudest fans in the NHL.
The return to Raleigh proved to help tremendously, as the Canes won 5-2 in front of a sellout playoff crowd of 19,202. The win, however, was not without tension.
After a back-and-forth five minutes, it was the Caps who would find the net first. Brett Connolly, off a backhand pass from Lars Eller, put a point-blank shot in the back of the net that went up over the shoulders of Petr Mrazek for a 1-0 Caps lead.
That lead would not last forever, thankfully. After the Canes’ first power play opportunity of the game ended, Warren Foegele regathered the puck off a Dougie Hamilton shot, and rifled it past Braden Holtby to tie the score up at 1 with 9:25 remaining in the first period. The crowd was starting to heat up.
Less than five minutes later, Ovechkin converted on another point blank opportunity for the Caps, skating into the zone and getting a shot past Mrazek’s stick for a 2-1 lead with 4:48 remaining in the first period.
The Canes would go down into the second period down 2-1 with plenty of game left to play. One thing that the Canes needed to address in the first intermission was their defense, as the Canes were leaving Caps players with wide open shots.
That must have been a focus of the intermission, as the Canes did not allow a single goal in the second period, to the tune of a goal of their own only 1:56 into the period. Aho fed Teravainen, who was wide open in front of the net, and he blasted it past Holtby’s glove to tie the score up at 2. In the last 20 seconds of the period, long after the score had been tied up, Mrazek made a breakaway save and a save on a deflection, resepctively, to keep the score tied at 2 apiece.
This was it. One more period. Who would make the plays to win Game 6? Would it be the defending Stanley Cup Champion Washington Capitals? Or would it be the young, speedier, hungrier Carolina Hurricanes?
It would be the Canes. Jordan Staal slid a backhand through Holtby’s legs only 3:51 into the third period to give the Canes their first lead of the night, 3-2. Caps center Evgeny Kuznetsov would appear to have a goal with 9:26 remaining in the period, but Mrazek had blown it dead before Ovechkin pushed the puck into the net.
The lead extension came moments later. Canes captain Justin Williams, an integral part of the 2006 Stanely Cup Championship team, deflected a shot from the point by defenseman Brett Pesce through the legs of Braden Holtby for a 4-2 lead. The Caniacs could taste victory.
That would not be all. Dougie Hamilton extended the lead to 5-2 with an empty net goal of his own with 3:06 remaining in the period. Barring any major comeback from the Caps, which never happened, this game was pretty much over.
At the final horn, the crowd erupted. They would be seeing a Game 7 for the first time in Canes franchise history since the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals, when on May 14, 2009, Scott Walker sent an overtime goal past legendary Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas to move on to the Eastern Conference Finals against the eventual 2009 Stanley Cup Champions, the Pittsburgh Penguins.
This game is less than an hour away. I am both super excited and super nervous at the same time. The Canes are about to beat the defending Stanley Cup Champions and carve a path for themselves. But it starts with an arena where they are 0-5 in on the season. The Canes will be up against a tough Caps team with rowdy fans.
But I know the Canes can win. They have come so far. They have the chance to do it. If the Canes play like they did in Game 6, they will move on.
Are you ready to Take Warning? There is a category GOAL hurricane coming to the nation’s capital tonight.
