The Washington Capitals opened the ’08-’09 pre-season with a trip to the Southeast Division rival Carolina Hurricanes last night, leaving Carolina with a 4-1 victory. Much like NFL pre-season, the Caps didn’t play many of their star players, instead using the time to evaluate some of their young prospects. With a team returning a majority of the players from last year’s Southeast Division Championship team, the spots with the big club are few and far between.

For the Caps, Tomas “Flash” Fleischmann opened the scoring 6:21 in the first period, just seconds into the team’s first power play. The Caps acting Captain Matt Bradley tallied just 64 second later to close out the first period scoring.

The ‘Canes Joni Pitkanen opened the scoring in the second period with a power play goal 7:58 in. Four minutes later, Matheiu Perreault scored in his first NHL pre-season game, at the 11:57 mark. Flash closed out the scoring 17:06 into the period with his second power play goal, this time just 9 seconds into the extra man advantage.

For a good read regarding last night’s victory, be sure to check out Mike Vogel’s Postgame Notebook on WashingtonCaps.com.

Carolina travels to the phone booth this evening for the re-match. You won’t be able to find it on TV or radio, but you can watch and listen live on WashingtonCaps.com. Let’s get ‘em!

Tags: Carolina Hurricanes, Joni Pitkanen, Matheiu Perreault, Matt Bradley, Tomas Fleischmann, Washington Capitals