Photo by Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images

The Washington Capitals beat the Carolina Hurricanes 3-1 on Thursday night at Capital One Arena. The win raised the Capitals record to 23-10-3 (49 points). The Capitals are back on the ice on Saturday when they face the Senators in Ottawa. Puck drop is set for 7:00PM. 

After a scoreless opening frame, the Capitals would add tallies from Chandler Stephenson and T.J. Oshie for a 2-0 lead at the second intermission. The Hurricanes would get on the board midway through the final frame to make it 2-1, but John Carlson would add an empty net goal t oseal the deal for a 3-1 win.

STARTERS
Braden Holtby (14-8-2, 2.79 GAA, .914 sv%) started between the pipes for the Capitals. Petr Mrazek (6-7-2, 2.63 GAA, sv%) got the start in goal for the visiting Hurricanes. The starting forward lines and defensive pairs for the Capitals:

Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie
Vrana-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Burakovsky-Eller-Connolly
Stephenson-Boyd-DSP
Kempny-Carlson
Orlov-Niskanen
Siegenthaler-Bowey

Scratches: Nic Dowd, Dmitrij Jaskin and Tyler Lewington (recalled by the Capitals earlier in the day) were all healthy scratches.

FIRST PERIOD
The Capitals and Hurricanes would battle to a scoreless draw in the first 20 minutes. The Capitals out-attempted the Hurricanes 16-9 and led 16-8 in shots on goal (SOG) for the first frame. The Hurricanes were 0 for 3 and the Capitals 0 for 1 on the power play in the first 20 minutes.

SECOND PERIOD
The Capitals opened the scoring with a goal from Chandler Stephenson at 3:33 of the middle frame.

The Capitals would stretch their lead to 2-0 with a deflected goal from T.J. Oshie at 18:16 of the second period. John Carlson and Alex Ovechkin were credited with the assists.

The period would end with the Capitals leading 2-0. The Hurricanes out-attempted the Caps 16-14 with the Caps leading 9-8 in SOG for the middle frame.

THIRD PERIOD
The Hurricanes would get on the score sheet with a tally from Sebastian Aho at 12:25 of the final frame.

Matt Niskanen would leave the game late in the third period after a scary check into the corner boards.

The Capitals would add an empty net goal for the 3-1 win.

SHAVINGS

• With his 112 career power play assist, John Carlson has passed Mike Green (111) for the sixth most power play assists by a Capitals defenseman in franchise history.
• With Carlson’s goal, he’s now four goals shy of passing Larry Murphy (86) for sixth place all-time among Capitals defensemen in the respective category.
• Over the last two seasons, John Carlson has recorded 28 multi-point games (1g, 1a tonight). No defenseman in the NHL has more multi-point games over the last two seasons.
• Oshie is now two goals shy of 200 career goals.
• The NHL box score is here.

SCENES FROM THE DISTRICT

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ESPN (@espn)

https://www.instagram.com/p/Br6RQ5jn8W3/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=1vnqyv9jaklwo

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by A N G R Y A P E (@angryape)