RALEIGH, N.C. _ The weather and the tailgating outside PNC Arena made it feel like April.
So did the hockey inside it.
In a game that had a playoff snarl to it, with hard hits and hard stares, tough puck battles and hard-earned goals, the Carolina Hurricanes and Washington Capitals went at it again Saturday.
The Canes won, 6-4, getting two goals and an assist from forward Warren Foegele, a solid-enough game in net from goalie Petr Mrazek and tough-enough play all over the ice in ending a three-game losing streak.
Foegele had an unforgettable Stanley Cup playoff series against the Caps last season as the Canes won in seven games, and No. 13 was at it again Saturday for Carolina (23-14-2).
Foegele's first goal came just eight seconds into the second period for a 2-0 lead. His second goal was bigger. It came shorthanded, after the Caps had pulled within 3-2 in the period on an Alex Ovechkin power-play score _ another left-circle bullet from the Caps' No. 8 _ and was soon back on the power play.
But Foegele struck, going to the front of the net and refusing to stop his stick attack until the puck was in the net. It was Foegele's third short-handed goal of the season and the Canes' league-leading ninth.
Foegele also used his energy and hustle to set up Dougie Hamilton for his 13th of the season. Stealing the puck, Foegele took off down the right wing, drawing Ovechkin to him on the rush before making the cross-ice pass to Hamilton.
Lucas Wallmark, Martin Necas and Andrei Svechnikov also scored for the Canes, who were coming off a 5-3 road loss Friday to the New York Rangers. Svechnikov's 17th of the season was an empty-netter as Caps coach Todd Reirden pulled goalie Braden Holtby with more than four minutes left in regulation.
Wallmark scored on a power play and Foegele had the "shorty," but the Caps countered with a pair of power-play conversions, by Ovechkin and then Evgeny Kuznetsov. Nic Dowd and Radko Gudas had the other Caps goals.
Kuznetsov scored after skating through the Canes' penalty killers, pulling the Caps within 4-3 in the third. But Necas scored his ninth of the season, following up an Erik Haula shot, to give the Canes another two-goal cushion.
Wallmark's score gave the Canes a 1-0 lead, extending the center's point streak to six games.
Dowd's score off the rush in the second got the Caps (27-8-5) on the board. Ovechkin's power-play score was the 256th of his career, lifting him past Teemu Selanne into third on the all-time power-play list.
The physicality quickly escalated during the game. Canes forward Jordan Martinook briefly left the game after a big hit by the Caps' Jonas Sigenthaler. Ovechkin went down after a body check by Jordan Staal that was called a kneeing penalty against Staal. The Caps' Nick Jensen later had a kneeing penalty after taking out Foegele in the neutral zone.
The Caps played without forward Tom Wilson, their most bruising player. Wilson was made a scratch after briefly going out for pregame warmup.
Canes coach Rod Brind'Amour made a few defensive tweaks, making Trevor van Riemsdyk the healthy extra and pairing Brett Pesce with Jake Gardiner and Haydn Fleury with Joel Edmundson.
