Brock McGinn scored at 11:05 of the second overtime to give the visiting Carolina Hurricanes a 4-3 victory over the Washington Capitals in the decisive Game 7 of an Eastern Conference first-round series on Wednesday night.

Carolina advances to play the New York Islanders in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Friday. The Hurricanes, who had not been in the playoffs since 2009, lost the first two games of this series but won four of the final five.

The Capitals, who won the Stanley Cup last year, fell to 5-12 when playing in a Game 7 -- the NHL's worst winning percentage in such contests (minimum of 10 games). Washington held leads of 2-0 and 3-1 on Wednesday but could not hold off Carolina.

All four NHL division winners were eliminated in the first round of the postseason.

The Hurricanes got the winning goal when former Capital Justin Williams made a pass from the right corner that McGinn deflected past goalie Braden Holtby to set off a wild celebration on the Hurricanes' bench. Jaccob Slavin got his third assist of the night on the final play.

Carolina goalie Petr Mrazek came up big, especially in the third period when Washington pressured the Hurricanes. He finished with 34 saves.

Andre Burakovsky gave the Capitals an early lead when he made a steal deep in Carolina territory and quickly scored on a high shot just 2:13 into the game.

Washington made it 2-0 on Tom Wilson's goal at the 6:23 mark of the first. Alex Ovechkin made a great individual effort to get the puck to Wilson, spinning and working his way past three defenders, and Wilson one-timed it into the net.

The Capitals had a chance to stretch the lead midway through the second period when they got a power play, but it was Carolina that scored when Sebastian Aho put a rebound past Holtby (38 saves).

Washington answered with 6:38 left in the middle period. Evgeny Kuznetsov got the puck in the Capitals' defensive zone and started what became a three-on-one rush. He took a pass from Carl Hagelin and scored for a 3-1 lead.

But Carolina came back again as Teuvo Teravainen scored from between the circles while fighting off Washington defenseman John Carlson. That sliced the deficit to 3-2 at 16:37 of the second.

Jordan Staal then tied it 2:56 into the third period, beating Holtby with a shot from the right circle that got inside the far post.

--Field Level Media