The Washington Capitals saw their winning streak come to an end at nine games -- at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday.
Comfortably leading the Eastern Conference standings, the Capitals had been rolling the competition of late, starting their streak on Dec. 12. (The now concluded nine game win streak followed Washington’s six-game win streak from late-November into early-December.)
But after beating the Hurricanes by one goal last week heading into the holiday break, Washington fell to Carolina by a final score of 4-2 on Thursday.
Jeff Skinner scored his 15th goal of the season, which stood as the eventual winner.
Eddie Lack, who has endured his share of struggles since coming to Carolina via a draft day trade from Vancouver, made 30 saves for just his fifth victory of the season -- but the fourth win in his last five games.
The Hurricanes are now 13th in the East, but have wins in four of their last six games -- their latest coming against what is right now the top team in the league -- heading into the New Year.
“It’s a good feeling,” said Carolina captain Eric Staal afterwards, as per video from the Hurricanes website. “I like the way we’ve been playing here the last month.”
"We're going in the right direction. I like the process," Peters said. "We generated some quantity and some quality tonight." #Redvolution
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) January 1, 2016
Coach Peters on tonight's win: "[Washington] had a real good push in the third and I liked how our guys handled it." #Canes #WSHvsCAR
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) January 1, 2016