Defenseman Brooks Orpik scored 1:48 into sudden-death overtime to give the Washington Capitals a 4-3 victory over the visiting Carolina Hurricanes in Game 2 of an Eastern Conference first-round series Saturday afternoon.

The Capitals have a 2-0 lead in this series, which shifts to Carolina for the next two games, starting Monday.

Orpik's game-winner was just his fourth goal in 151 NHL playoff games.

His timing was perfect on Saturday as Evgeny Kuznetsov found him from behind the cage coming off the bench, and Orpik got an opening because the Carolina player defending him didn't have a stick. He then fired a shot past goalie Petr Mrazek (29 saves).

Washington jumped out to an early lead, just like in Game 1, with a pair of first-period goals.

Nicklas Backstrom took a perfect feed from Alex Ovechkin and easily beat Mrazek from the doorstep 3:37 into the game for a 1-0 lead.

The Capitals then made it 2-0 midway through the period when T.J. Oshie raced down the right side, quickly cut into the middle and fired a backhander past Mrazek.

But that goal seemed to awaken Carolina as the Hurricanes put the pressure on for the rest of the period. That resulted in a Lucas Wallmark goal with 4:06 left in the first.

Washington challenged the play as goalie Braden Holtby (25 saves) was hit and spun around, but the goal stood and the Hurricanes had cut the lead in half.

Both teams had several chances in the second period -- Washington with a power play of more than four minutes, while the Hurricanes had a two-man advantage for over a minute -- but nothing came of either opportunity.

Finally, Sebastian Aho tied the game with 3:11 left in the period, scoring from an odd angle just to Holtby's right.

Washington took a 3-2 lead when Tom Wilson took an Ovechkin pass and scored 8:55 into the third period. But the Capitals couldn't hold it as Jordan Staal redirected a Dougie Hamilton shot past Holtby with five minutes left for a game-tying power-play goal that tied the game at 3 and forced overtime.

--Field Level Media