Caps Bottle Hurricanes 3-2
Getting Kelly Miller back on the ice paid immediate dividends for the struggling Washington Capitals.
"He scored one goal in his past 59 NHL games, and it was just that he had other people playing ahead of him," Washington coach Ron Wilson said of his decision to use Miller sparingly this season. "I knew he would come in and take the lens cap off. I knew he'd come in and he'd at least hustle."
Hustle was something that was lacking for the Capitals in their previous two games, both shutout losses. Washington responded with a season-high 38 shots against the Hurricanes.
"Right from the drop of the puck we were really determined to skate hard and to battle and to play it like it was a playoff game," said Miller, whose return included a five-minute fighting penalty in the third period.
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Miller, 35, the Capitals' all-time leader in games played, said spending so much time out of the lineup this season has been difficult.
"I was just itching to get back in there and do something good to help the team," he said. "For us to come back and win after playing so hard makes this doubly satisfying."
Peter Bondra and Brian Bellows added goals for the Capitals and Andrei Nikolishin contributed two assists.
Keith Primeau had his team-leading 21st goal and added an assist for Southeast Division-leading Carolina. The Hurricanes also got a goal from Glen Wesley and two assists from Ray Sheppard.
After the Capitals won the faceoff in overtime, Nikolishin fed the puck to Miller, who fired a slap shot from about 30 feet in front of the crease. The puck flew past the left shoulder of Arturs Irbe.
"That was a real disappointing way to end he game," Carolina coach Paul Maurice said. "Because of the battle, it was so hard-fought, to lose it in overtime is just (tough)."
Wesley, bidding for what would have been his second consecutive game-winning goal, put Carolina up 2-1 in the opening minute of the third period. He took a cross-ice feed from Primeau, faked out Bondra, slid the puck between Calle Johansson's legs and slapped it past Olaf Kolzig.
But Bellows tied it with 9:49 left when he poked in a feed from Nikolishin.
Carolina's best opportunity the rest of the way came when Ron Francis, trying to scramble for the puck and give the Hurricanes a breakaway, was tripped by Bondra with 3:49 remaining. But Carolina got just one scoring chance during the power play, a soft wrist shot by Marek Malik that Kolzig kicked away.
The Capitals' first-period goal came when Carolina defenseman Paul Coffey was stripped of the puck in front of the Hurricanes' goal by Black, who fed it to Bondra for an easy flip-in. The goal ended a Washington scoreless drought of 148 minutes, 52 seconds.
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