Washington, DC – Justin Peters made 26 saves for his second career shutout and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Washington Capitals, 4-0, in the opener of a home-and-home series.
Riley Nash had two goals for the Hurricanes, who have won two straight and six of seven. Patrick Dwyer and Joe Corvo also lit the lamp.
"It's a lot of fun just to get an opportunity to play in this league and every time I get an opportunity, I want to try and take advantage of it," Peters said. "We played an awesome game tonight as a team right from the drop of the puck, right to the last buzzer. That was a total group effort tonight and a huge confidence booster for us."
Braden Holtby stopped 32-of-35 shots for the Capitals, who have lost three in a row.
Corvo got Carolina's offense going at the 3:55 mark of the first period. He was near the boards when his shot along the goal line hit Holtby in the back and went in.
Nash scored a pair of goals in the middle stanza to increase the Hurricanes' margin to three.
At the 5:55 mark, Nash deflected Jay Harrison's shot from along the left boards, and with 1:34 left, Dwyer nullified an icing call and found Nash in the slot to make it 3-0.
Dwyer added an empty-net goal late in the third period to account for the final margin.
"We had a lot of good scoring chances," Capitals forward Matt Hendricks said. "Ovie [Alex Ovechkin] and Marcus [Johansson] and Ribs [Mike Ribero] came out and we had a lot of good movement in the beginning. We had some more in the second; [Troy] Brouwer got a shorthanded breakaway. We just couldn't find the net tonight."
Game Notes
These two teams will play Thursday at Carolina ... Washington defenseman Tom Poti missed the game with an upper-body injury ... The Capitals recalled defenseman Cameron Schilling from Hershey of the AHL. He made his NHL debut.
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