WASHINGTON — The Carolina Hurricanes can advance to the Eastern Conference Final for the second time in three seasons with a win against the Washington Capitals in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Second Round at Capital One Arena on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS).
Carolina won the past two games of the best-of-7 series at home and is 2-2 on the road in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, including a 2-1 overtime victory in Game 1 at Washington. They can close out the series with another road win.
“It doesn’t really change the way we want to approach this game,” Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho said Thursday. “Every game is hard. We’ve been saying that basically throughout the whole playoffs and it’s true. There are no easy games. Tonight is no different. Obviously, we expect the best out of them and the best out of us, so it should be a good one.”
Facing elimination in a season when so much went right on the way to finishing first in the Eastern Conference, the Capitals are focused on trying to win a game at home, where they are 4-1 in the playoffs after going 26-9-6 in the regular season. If they can do that, they’ll force Game 6 in Carolina on Saturday.
“We don’t really look at it big-picture wise,” Washington coach Spencer Carbery said. “It’s just one game, so there’s there starting point, just winning one hockey game. And then what gives us confidence (is) that we can do that. We’ve done it in this series. We’ve been a great hockey team all year long. We’ve been a great home team all year long, so that’s really where the confidence has drummed up for (us), is winning one hockey game on home ice.”
After scoring only two goals in losing the past two games — both in a 5-2 loss in Game 4 on Monday — the Capitals must find a way to generate more offense. Scoring first would help after they controlled play early in Games 3 and 4. They couldn’t convert on some early Grade-A chances against goalie Frederik Andersen before eventually falling behind and having to chase for the remainder of the game.
“We’ve come out well in the last two games, we started well, but we’ve got to come away with something,” Washington defenseman John Carlson said. “Just killing time isn’t good enough at this stage of the game. That will be important for us. It’s not only playing well to start but cashing in when we get those chances.”
The Hurricanes have dictated play with their aggressive forecheck for most of the series, outscoring the Capitals 12-6, so they don’t feel the need to change anything.
“That’s the trick,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “Well, it’s not even the trick. It’s what we’ve been doing every day that we’ve been here is focusing on what’s right in front of us, trying to win that day, win that game.”
Teams with a 3-1 lead in a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Playoff series are 321-32 (90.9 percent), including 5-0 in the 2025 playoffs. The Hurricanes are 8-0 in their history when leading 3-1.
The Capitals are 2-10 when trailing 3-1, coming back to win the 1988 Patrick Division Semifinals against the Philadelphia Flyers and the 2009 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals against the New York Rangers.
Here is a breakdown of Game 5:
Hurricanes: Carolina has produced offense by committee in the series. Ten different players have scored goals, led by forward Andrei Svechnikov and defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere with two each, and 16 have gotten at least one point, with Gostisbehere (two goals, one assist) and forwards Taylor Hall (one goal, two assists), Jack Roslovic (one goal, two assists) and Seth Jarvis (one goal, two assists) leading the way with three apiece. Only the defensively focused third line centered by Jordan Staal has yet to score a goal, and five of their six defenseman have at least one point. “We’ve found some line combinations that work in the middle six and it seems to be in a good place right now,” Hall said. Jalen Chatfield, the lone defenseman without a point, is expected to play after he was the only Hurricanes player not to practice Wednesday.
Capitals: After getting only two 5-on-5 goals from forwards in the first four games — Aliaksei Protas in Game 1 and Connor McMichael in Game 2 — Washington is expected to shake up its line combinations. Most notable will be moving McMichael from left wing on the second line to replace Lars Eller at center on the third line between Andrew Mangiapane and rookie Ryan Leonard. Anthony Beauvillier will move from the fourth line to right wing on the top line with Alex Ovechkin and Dylan Strome after having five points (one goal, four assists) in five games playing in that spot in the first round against the Montreal Canadiens. Taylor Raddysh will take Beauvillier’s spot on the fourth line after being a healthy scratch in Game 4 and Eller is expected to be a healthy scratch for the first time in the playoffs.
Number to know: 77. The number of shots on goal the Hurricanes allowed in the first four games of the series for an average of 19.3 per game, which is the lowest in the second round. The Capitals have given up 31.8 shots on goal per game.
What to look for: Can the Hurricanes withstand the desperate Capitals early push, like they did in Games 3 and 4, and close out the series? Washington needs to start with breaking out of its zone cleanly more often. Once it does, can it make life harder on Andersen by getting more pucks and bodies to the net?
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