Hurricanes and Stars ride stellar special teams to the verge of the conference finals

Before starting the second round against the Carolina Hurricanes, Washington Capitals coach Spencer Carbery had a good sense of what would determine the series between the top two teams in the Metropolitan Division, fierce rivals who are very familiar with each other.

“Special teams, goaltending, secondary scoring,” Carbery said. “Those are three things that I look at when teams are evenly matched, when it’s an even series, when the margins are very, very thin.”

While goaltending and secondary scoring have certainly factored into going up 3-1 in their series for Carolina and the Dallas Stars against the Winnipeg Jets, the biggest reason each team has gotten to this point is some of the best special teams play in the NHL playoffs.

Dallas and Carolina ranked first and second on the power play and the penalty kill among the eight teams that advanced past the first round. They’re also 1-2 in those categories this round.

“Both special teams have been excellent,” Stars coach Peter DeBoer said. “Listen, when we lost Miro (Heiskanen and Jason) Robertson, we needed our special teams to be difference-makers every night, and our goaltender. And all those things have happened to allow us to be in the spot we’re in right now.”
Carolina Hurricanes at Washington Capitals

When/Where to Watch: Game 5, Thursday, 7 p.m. EDT (TNT)

Series: Hurricanes leads 3-1

The Hurricanes are 9-5 with a chance to advance over the past seven playoffs under coach Rod Brind’Amour, the primary stumble coming when they lost Games 6 and 7 to the New York Rangers in the second round in 2022. That is the only time during this stretch that they won three games in a series but did not advance.

“The last one is always the hardest, no matter how it plays out,” captain Jordan Staal said. “It’s not easy, and we’ve got a lot of work ahead still.”

Washington winger Tom Wilson, who has been the Capitals’ best player in the series, said the belief in the group remains strong despite needing to win three in a row to keep the season going.

“The last elimination game is probably the toughest fight,” Wilson said. “We expect their urgency’s going to be high, and ours has to be higher.”

Hurricanes defenseman Jalen Chatfield did not practice Wednesday. But Brind’Amour said Chatfield was just getting rest after feeling something late in Game 4 and should be good to go in Game 5.
Dallas Stars at Winnipeg Jets

When/Where to Watch: Game 5, Thursday, 9:30 p.m. EDT (TNT)

Series: Stars leads 3-1

The biggest things standing in Dallas’ way of a third consecutive trip to the West Final are a wired crowd in Winnipeg and an opponent that has played much better at home than on the road this postseason — most notably goaltender Connor Hellebuyck.

The likely Vezina Trophy winner and Hart Trophy finalist as league MVP is 5-1 with a 1.99 goals-against average and .902 save percentage at home, compared to 0-5 with a 5.84 and .793 on the road.

“I leave it all out there every night,” Hellebuyck said. “I’m doing my best. Sometimes it’s a heartbreak, but all it takes is one little change, one little bounce and things can start going our way.”

The Stars are no stranger to this situation, but in each of the past two years they lost their first chance to close out their second-round opponent — Seattle in 2023 and Colorado in ’24 — before eventually doing so.

“It’s on us to play a mature game up in Winnipeg,” goalie Jake Oettinger said. “We don’t want to have to come back here and play again. We’ve all been talking about how bad we want to get back to the conference final. Now it’s our turn to show up.”

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AP Sports Writers Aaron Beard in Morrisville, North Carolina, and Stephen Hawkins in Dallas contributed to this report.

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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl