Washington Capitals at Carolina Hurricanes

Hurricanes rally for 4-2 victory over slumping Caps. Ovechkin scores both goals for Washington.

Jake Guentzel had two goals, including an empty-netter, and an assist and Martin Necas also scored for Carolina. Jaccob Slavin had two assists and Pyotr Kochetkov made 14 saves.

“The way we just battled our way back into this game,” Aho said. “It shows a lot of good things about our team.”

Washington’s Alex Ovechkin scored two first-period goals and Darcy Kuemper made 41 saves. The Capitals have lost five in a row (0-4-1).

“I thought we fought,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “We obviously were under siege for large portions of that game, but I thought the guys battled and tried to protect that lead.”

Ovechkin scored two goals in a game for the fourth time in less than three weeks, a span of 10 games with 10 total goals. Of his 851 career goals, 50 have come against the Hurricanes.

Looking to recover after Thursday night’s 4-1 loss to the Boston Bruins, it took time for the Hurricanes to get their offense going. They were in danger of dropping consecutive games in regulation for the first time since a four-game skid in December.

“Sometimes it goes that way,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “Not necessarily how you draw it up, but I thought it was a solid 60 minutes.”

Carolina held an 18-6 edge in first-period shots.

“We have to keep shooting there,” Necas said.

Necas tied the game on a power play with 8:20 to play. Aho’s team-leading 34th goal came on the next power play.

The Hurricanes scored more than one power-play goal in a game for the first time in 10 games.

Carbery was frustrated about the hooking call that Aho drew on Rasmus Sandin that led to Carolina’s final power play.

“It’s not Sandin,” Carbery said. “It’s Kuemper and the puck is there and he goes to swipe at the puck and that’s what gets Aho’s skates. So it’s the wrong call.”

Ovechkin scored his first goal of the game at 3:31 of the first period on a rebound. His 29th goal of the season came with 45 seconds left in the period, tipping in a shot from John Carlson. Carlson’s shot from inside the blue line came after the Capitals controlled an offensive zone faceoff.

Guentzel scored with 5:30 left in the second. He collected a long stretch pass from Slavin and converted. Guentzel has scored in back-to-back games and now has five goals in 13 games with Carolina and 27 goals overall this season.

“Just trying to adjust to the new team,” Guentzel said. “It has been going good so far.”

Aho said: “I wasn’t really worried about him. The guy can score.”

Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov missed the game with what the team announced as an illness.

UP NEXT

Capitals: host Ottawa on Sunday.

Hurricanes: host Columbus on Sunday.

Series tied 2-2