The Washington Capitals celebrate their shootout win as the Carolina Hurricanes’ Seth Jarvis skates past during the third period of an NHL game in Raleigh, N.C., on Sunday.
AP photo
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The Washington Capitals’ Evgeny Kuznetsov (92) celebrates after scoring during a shootout against the Carolina Hurricanes in an NHL game in Raleigh, N.C., on Sunday.
AP photo
The Carolina Hurricanes’ Seth Jarvis shoots the puck over the glove of Washington Capitals goaltender Darcy Kuemper during the third period of an NHL game in Raleigh, N.C., on Sunday.
AP photo
RALEIGH, N.C. — Evgeny Kuznetsov scored the deciding goal in the shootout to lead the Washington Capitals to a 2-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday night.
Martin Fehervary scored for the Capitals while Darcy Kuemper made 28 saves and stopped all three attempts in the shootout.
Washington improved to 5-0 on the season in the second game of back-to-back sets.
“We’ve been in a few of these now of just grinding our way through where you can tell fatigue is a factor,” Washington coach Spencer Carbery said. “The penalty kill stepped up big. (Kuemper) was excellent. He made some massive saves for us and we found a way to win.”
The Capitals have earned at least a point in five of their past six games. They’ve been able to piece together points without a lot of production from star Alex Ovechkin, who hasn’t scored since Nov. 18.
“Structurally, we’re playing well,” Tom Wilson said. “It’s not always about winning games 6-5 and 7-4 and all that. We’re playing good and we feel good about our game. The goals will come.”
Sebastian Aho scored for the Hurricanes, who lost their second straight game. Carolina goalie Pyotr Kochetkov made 20 saves.
Both goalies were sharp early. Kochetkov stopped Wilson on a short-handed breakaway with 1:42 left in the first period. Kuemper robbed Jalen Chatfield early in the second period on a prime scoring chance.
Aho broke through for the game’s first goal on a feed from Seth Jarvis. Aho finished a shot from the slot at 7:41 in the second for the 1-0 lead.
Fehervary evened it at 1-1 at 11:33 in the second after a lead pass from Wilson. Fehervary was alone in the slot and beat Kochetkov to the glove side.
“I saw an opportunity to join the rush,” Fehervary said. “I was open. I saw that they were cutting off (Ovechkin), not surprised, so I just shot it and it went in.”
Kochetkov started for the fifth time in seven games after the Hurricanes assigned veteran goalie Antti Raanta to Chicago in the AHL on Sunday.
Raanta, whose .854 save percentage ranks last in the NHL, was waived on Saturday but went unclaimed. Yaniv Perets, an undrafted rookie, was called up from Norfolk in the ECHL to serve as the backup.
Since a four-game losing streak in early December, the Hurricanes have earned a point in four straight (2-0-2).
“We did everything we wanted to do, just didn’t score,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “I thought we stuck with our gameplan really well and hit a few goalposts. Couple of inches here or there and it would have been a much different story.”
The Hurricanes finished 0 for 5 on the power play. Brady Skjei had a power-play goal disallowed during a four-minute opportunity in the first period when Stefan Noesen was ruled to be in the crease.
“The penalty kill has been giving us life all year,” Kuemper said. “To get a big four-minute kill to start the game like that, it kinda sets the tone for everybody else and everybody else feeds off of it.”
DUCKS 5, DEVILS 1
NEWARK, N.J. — Adam Henrique scored three goals for his first career hat trick and Anaheim snapped a five-game losing streak.
Alex Killorn had a goal and two assists, Troy Terry had a goal and an assist, and defensemen Pavel Mintyukov and Cam Fowler each had two assists for the Ducks, who were 1-13-0 since their last regulation win on Nov. 14.
John Gibson had 18 saves through two periods and Lukas Dostal stopped all 10 shots he faced in the third. The Ducks announced Gibson was pulled because he was feeling “under the weather.”
Michael McLeod scored for New Jersey, and Akira Schmid finished with 22 saves. The Devils had won two straight and five of six.
CANUCKS 4, BLACKHAWKS 3
CHICAGO — Brock Boeser, Ilya Mikheyev and Dakota Joshua scored in the middle period, and Vancouver beat depleted Chicago.
Elias Pettersson also scored as the Canucks shook off a slow start. J.T. Miller and Tyler Myers each had two assists, and Thatcher Demko made 25 saves. Vancouver improved to 6-1-1 in the last eight games.
Nick Foligno had two goals for Chicago, and Connor Bedard had two assists against his hometown team. Cole Guttman scored in the third period, and Petr Mrazek made 22 saves. The last-place Blackhawks lost their fourth straight game and dropped to 4-13-1 in their last 18.
GOLDEN KNIGHTS 6, SENATORS 3
LAS VEGAS — Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev each had a goal and an assist, and Logan Thompson came off the bench to make 20 saves as Vegas beat Ottawa.
Jonathan Marchessault, Nicolas Roy, Chandler Stephenson and William Karlsson also scored for the Golden Knights. Adin Hill gave up one goal on three shots in his return to the net for the first time since Nov. 30 before leaving with an apparent injury 6:25 into the game.
Josh Norris, Ridly Greig and Brady Tkachuk each scored for the Senators and Joonas Korpisalo made 25 saves.
AVALANCHE 6, SHARKS 2
DENVER — Nathan MacKinnon had two goals and two assists to extend his point streak to 15 games, and Colorado beat San Jose.
Mikko Rantanen, Ryan Johansen, Valeri Nichushkin and Miles Wood also had goals for the Avalanche. Alexandar Georgiev had 27 saves in rebound game from a poor start last Monday.
MacKinnon’s streak ties his career high and also gives him at least one point in all 16 home games this season. He is second in the NHL in scoring with 47 points, trailing only Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov (52).
Tomas Hertl scored two goals for the Sharks and MacKenzie Blackwood finished with 23 saves.