Raleigh, NC -- The Washington Capitals try to make it two straight wins this evening when they face off with the Carolina Hurricanes at the RBC Center.

A win tonight would match Washington's best start through five games since the 1997-98 season, when the Capitals went to the Stanley Cup Finals. They also began the 2002-03 campaign at 3-2-0.

On Monday, Alexander Ovechkin scored the go-ahead goal at 9:03 of the third period and the Capitals held on for a 3-2 victory over the New York Rangers at the MCI Center.

Ovechkin, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2004 draft, scored his third goal of the year and helped Washington improve to 2-2 on the season. The 20-year-old Russian has scored in all four games for the Capitals and has five points so far in his rookie campaign. His points streak has tied a Capitals record for consecutive games with a point at the beginning of a career, matching Ryan Walter (1978) and Milan Novy (1982).

Petr Sykora and Steve Eminger each added their first NHL goals in the win, while Olaf Kolzig made 30 saves.

Washington, which will return home for a pair of games after tonight's contest, is winless in its only road game this season.

Carolina, meanwhile, enters tonight's tilt on the heels of a 3-2 loss to the New York Islanders on Saturday.

Eric Staal had two goals, Oleg Tverdovsky had two assists and Cam Ward had 32 saves for the Hurricanes, who were 0-for-5 on the power play and are 0- for-15 with the man advantage for the season.

Staal has tallied in each of the Canes' three games this season and leads the team with four goals. It is the second time in Carolina history that a player has scored in each of the team's first three games. Rod Brind'Amour also accomplished the feat in 2002-03. Kevin Dineen set the franchise record for longest goal-scoring streak to start a season when he scored a goal per game for the teams first five games of the 1990-91 season.

Carolina will kick off a three-game road trip on Saturday in New Jersey and will also make stops in Toronto and Washington to close the trek.

Washington was 4-1-1 versus the Hurricanes in 2003-04 and is 5-1-1 in the last seven meetings. The Capitals are also unbeaten in their last three (2-0-1) in Carolina, where they are 5-1-2 over the last eight games.