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The Playoff Buzzer: Wild Card teams are 4-for-4

APTOPIX Hurricanes Capitals Hockey

Carolina Hurricanes left wing Brock McGinn, left, celebrates his game-winning goal during double overtime of Game 7 of an NHL hockey first-round playoff series against Washington Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby (70) and right wing Tom Wilson (43), Wednesday, April 24, 2019, in Washington. The Hurricanes won 4-3 in double overtime. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

AP


  • The Washington Capitals blew 2-0 and 3-1 leads to drop Game 7 against the Carolina Hurricanes. Former Capitals player and frequent Game 7 star Justin Williams played a big role in Carolina’s 2OT winning goal.
  • With Carolina’s victory, all four Wild Card teams have advanced to Round 2.

Hurricanes 4, Capitals 3 [2OT] (CAR wins 4-3)
The Capitals got off to a terrific start. Andre Burakovsky and Tom Wilson scored in the first 6:23 minutes of the contest, but rather than fall apart, the Hurricanes dug in. It wasn’t until 2:56 of the third period when the Hurricanes caught up thanks to a Jordan Staal goal. Washington battled hard for the rest of the third period, but once overtime started the game was all Carolina until finally they broke through when Brock McGinn tipped in a Jason Williams shot. With that, the defending Stanley Cup champions are done and a franchise that last made the playoffs in 2009 is going to Round 2.

Three Stars

1. Brock McGinn, Carolina Hurricanes.
He got the series-winning goal and registered an assist on Teuvo Teravainen’s marker. This was the 25-year-old’s first playoff series and prior to it he had 36 goals in 240 career regular season games. Of those 36 goals, only two were game-winners.

2. Jaccob Slavin, Carolina Hurricanes.

Assisted on three of the Hurricanes’ four goals. He also led both teams with 38:27 minutes of ice time in the 2OT contest. He finished the series with nine assists in seven games.

3. Andre Burakovsky, Washington Capitals.

Got the scoring started just 2:13 minutes into the contest off a superb steal. It was his first goal of the series.

One goal Dougie Hamilton will be happy is forgotten

It didn’t end up defining the game, but Alex Ovechkin outplayed Hamilton on this goal. If Washington won this game, this goal might have been a big part of the story.

Factoids of the night

Remaining NHL teams, last Cup:

Boston 2011
Carolina 2006
Colorado 2001
Dallas 1999
Islanders 1983
Columbus never
San Jose never
St. Louis never

— James Mirtle (@mirtle) April 25, 2019


While this is only the #Hurricanes 4th playoff appearance since 2001, they are now 10-2 in series during that span including 4-0 in the 1st round and 8-0 between Rounds 1 & 2 series combined

— StatsCentre (@StatsCentre) April 25, 2019


Thursday’s Games

Game 1: Blue Jackets at Bruins, 7:00 p.m. ET, NBCSN
Game 1: Stars at Blues, 9:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN

Ryan Dadoun is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @RyanDadoun.