RALEIGH, N.C. - The Carolina Hurricanes came out of the gate slow and could not recover on Friday, falling to the Washington Capitals by a score of 5-2.
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Opening a weekend back-to-back set against Metropolitan Division foes, the Canes had hoped that the positives from their nail-biting, neck-and-neck affair against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday would snowball into a better result this evening. Instead, a trio of goals in the first 15 minutes by Washington, including two from Alex Tuch, quickly put them behind the eight ball.
Falling behind by four during the middle stanza, a Sebastian Aho power-play goal temporarily stopped the bleeding for Carolina, but the first strike of the season for Rod Brind'Amour's squad was countered on the very next shift.
Logan Stankoven redirected a K'Andre Miller point shot to close the deficit in the third period, but that was as close as the hosts would get to a comeback bid.
Brandon Bussi suffered his first regulation loss of the season in net for the Canes, allowing five goals on 27 shots.
