Carolina @ Washington preview

Last Meeting ( Sep 29, 2019 ) Washington 4, Carolina 3

The Carolina Hurricanes recorded a comeback victory in their season opener and now test themselves against a pair of division winners in their next two games, starting with Saturday's road contest against the Washington Capitals. The Hurricanes gave up three straight goals in the second period to lose the lead on Thursday before registering 19 shots in the third and defeating Montreal 4-3 in a shootout.

“I liked everything in the third period. We just got to our game,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour told reporters. “I don’t know if it was shaking up the lines or guys just coming to realize that how we were playing wasn’t going to work. I give them a lot of credit for digging in and figuring it out.” Washington looks for a little revenge after being eliminated by the Hurricanes in the first round of the playoffs last season as it plays its home opener following a pair of one-goal road victories. The Capitals rallied to beat defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis 3-2 in overtime on Wednesday and received a 25-save performance from the 22-year-old Ilya Samsonov in his NHL debut on Friday to record a 2-1 triumph against the New York Islanders. Jakub Vrana, who scored the game-winner in St. Louis, netted the first tally on Friday and T.J. Oshie recorded the go-ahead goal on the power play as Washington posted the win despite 22 giveaways.

TV: 7 p.m. ET, FS Carolinas, NBCS Washington

ABOUT THE HURRICANES (1-0-0): Erik Haula (five shots) scored the tying goal in the third period and Ryan Dzingel notched an assist in their debuts with the team. “It feels good to get on the board right away and feels good to get a big win,” Haula told reporters. “I feel as a group, we played a lot better in the third and we played like the team we want to be.” Dougie Hamilton registered a pair of assists and the only shootout goal on Thursday while fellow defensemen Jake Gardiner (free agent) and Joel Edmundson (trade with St. Louis) each recorded two shots in their first game with Carolina.

ABOUT THE CAPITALS (2-0-0): Vrana, who scored a career-best 24 goals in 2018-19, leads the way with eight shots in his first two games - one more than captain Alex Ovechkin, who scored in the win at St. Louis. Defenseman John Carlson is off to a strong start with three assists and a plus-2 rating in the first two games while Lars Eller also has set up three tallies in the early going. Braden Holtby, who turned aside 20 shots in the season opener for his 258th career win, is expected to be back in net on Saturday as he is 16-6-0 with a 1.98 goals-against average in his career against Carolina.

OVERTIME

1. Capitals C Evgeny Kuznetsov will serve the third game of his three-game suspension for inappropriate conduct in the offseason.

2. Hurricanes C Sebastian Aho, who started last season with a 12-game point streak, was kept off the scoresheet Thursday despite registering four shots.

3. Carolina went 0-3-1 against Washington last season and lost the first two contests of their first-round playoff series before winning in seven games.

PREDICTION: Hurricanes 3, Capitals 2