RALEIGH, N.C. -- Eric Fehr scored with 4:02 remaining and the Washington Capitals beat the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1 on Thursday night.

Jay Beagle scored an early goal and Braden Holtby stopped 29 shots for the Capitals. Washington, which had lost two in a row, moved back over .500 at 11-10-4.

Alexander Semin scored his first goal of the season for the Hurricanes, who were trying to win two in a row for the first time since early November.

Fehr made the game-winning play all by himself. He stole the puck from Riley Nash just inside the blue line, charged between the circles and snapped a shot past Anton Khudobin.

Khudobin finished with 26 saves for Carolina.

The Capitals had lost four of its last five and allowed a combined 15 goals in those defeats. They always seem to find a way to play tight games against Carolina -- 19 of the last 32 meetings have been decided by one goal.

Washington played a mostly tight defensive game in this one in front of Holtby, who took a bid for his second shutout of the season into the third.

Brooks Orpik came up with two blocked shots in about 20 seconds, including a big one against Semin with about a minute left.

Semin had given the Hurricanes a jolt of momentum earlier in the final period when he tied it with his long-awaited first goal.

The former Washington forward took a nifty pass from Jay Harrison and beat Holtby with a backhand for the 500th point of his career.

Beagle had put the Capitals up 1-0 after a Carolina misplay just 2:19 in. Khudobin stopped Jason Chimera's shot from close range but Beagle poked in the rebound.

That was a good sign for Washington, which improved to 10-1-1 when scoring first.

Game notes

The Hurricanes skated without G Cam Ward (lower body) and called up Drew MacIntyre from Charlotte of the AHL to back up Khudobin. ... Another of Ward's former backups was in the building: G Justin Peters didn't play behind Holtby. ... Carolina D Andrej Sekera, hurt when blocking a shot Tuesday night against Nashville, also was scratched.

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