Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

The Washington Capitals Fail To Put Away The Carolina Hurricanes

04/23/2019 at 9:04am EDT

from Tom Gulitti of NHL.com,

The chant echoed throughout PNC Arena during the final minutes of the Washington Capitals' 5-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference First Round.

"Game 7! Game 7!"

Trailing by three goals, the Capitals already knew that they were going to have to play the deciding game in the best-of-7 series at Capital One Arena on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN, SN360, TVAS, NBCSW, FS-CR). But the reminder from the Hurricanes fans added an exclamation point to a frustrating evening.

The defending Stanley Cup champions wasted an opportunity to finish off the pesky Hurricanes on Monday, so their hopes for a repeat will hang in the balance in Game 7. The winner will face the New York Islanders in the second round.

Last season, the Capitals were 4-0 when they had a chance to eliminate their opponent, and they won each of those games on the road.

"Our level was not where it was in Game 5, and I knew we were going to need that to be able to take a desperate team out that's played hard the whole series," Washington coach Todd Reirden said. "It's not been an easy series at all, nor did we expect it to [be], looking at how they played from the beginning of the year on. So we need to get back to Game 5's level of compete, urgency, desperation and then some to be able to come out on top here."

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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