Back-to-back road games are a dangerous proposition for most teams in the NHL. The travel and lack of recovery time alone are the perfect recipe for a sluggish performance. However, that
memo hasn’t reached the Washington Capitals, who improved to 5-0 on the second game of a back-to-back this season in a gritty 2-1 shootout victory against the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday night.
The win was another two points on the season for Washington, who have now secured points in five of the team’s last six games.
Saturday night’s showdown against the Nashville Predators was largely a game to forget for Spencer Carbery’s squad as the Caps fell 3-1 to a red-hot Predators team.
Aside from TJ Oshie’s two-man advantage goal to tie it up in the second period, Washington let the momentum slip away towards the end of the second period, and Nashville never looked back.
A quick turnaround and a post-midnight arrival to Raleigh gave the Caps little time to ponder what went wrong because they came to play against the Canes.
Full media availability with head coach Spencer Carbery following tonight's shootout win over Carolina.#CapsCanes pic.twitter.com/KID0tvYnQ4
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) December 18, 2023
“We’ve been in a few of these now, just griding our way through where you can tell fatigue is a factor, and we’re trying to manage the game,” Carbery told reporters in Raleigh after the
shootout victory. “We weathered some storms there for a little bit in our defense zone; our penalty kill steps up huge. [Darcy Kuemper] was excellent tonight, made some massive saves
for us, and just found a way to win.”
Darcy Kuemper started in net for the Capitals and won his second consecutive game as a starter, saving 28 shots, including all three shootout attempts, bringing his season total to 13 shootout saves on 13 attempts.
“[The Hurricanes] work hard.” Kuemper said post-game. “You got to match their intensity. It’s a tougher thing to do on a back-to-back like this, but the guys did a great job of it tonight.”
In a relatively quiet offensive outing for the Capitals on Sunday night, Martin Fehervary’s second-period snapshot with 8:27 to go in the second period tied it up for the Caps. From there, Darcy Kuemper and the defense held the fort down to force a shootout.
"I got the puck then I saw they were cutting off to Ovi – I'm not surprised – so I just shot it and it went it in and I was really happy for that."
Martin Fehervary after scoring one of two goals total on the evening for both sides. #CapsCanes pic.twitter.com/apv2bMn2PM
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) December 18, 2023
“I think it’s showing our character,” Fehervary said in the locker room. “We’re trying to help each other, we’re playing, we fought for each other, and I think it’s really showing off how good of a group this is.
The Capitals continue a vital stretch of December games against the New York Islanders this Wednesday. Washington faces Metro Division opponents in three of the team’s next four games and eight of the team’s next 11 games heading into the next month.