RALEIGH, N.C. — Dougie Hamilton figured he’d already shot — and missed — enough.
So with the game on the line and the puck on his stick, the rookie defenseman deferred to one of the Boston Bruins’ veterans.
David Krejci scored the tiebreaking goal off a pretty pass from Hamilton with 1:50 left to help the Bruins beat the Carolina Hurricanes 5-3 on Monday night.
“I figured I’d already taken enough shots where I didn’t score, so I saw (Krejci) open backdoor and I just put it over to him," Hamilton said. “And he put it home."
Zdeno Chara had a power-play goal and two assists, Nathan Horton had a goal and an assist, Tyler Seguin had an empty-net goal and an assist and Brad Marchand scored a short-handed goal for the Bruins.
The Northeast Division leaders remained unbeaten in regulation and opened the season by earning points in five straight games for the first time since 1990-91.
“We’re ready to go. We know it’s a short season (and) it’s really important to get points early in the season," Krejci said. “We’re trying to get as (many) points as we can. We’ve got nine out of (a possible) 10. That’s pretty good, but we’ve got to keep going."
Eric Staal had a goal and an assist, and he and Jeff Skinner scored 50 seconds apart late in the second period to help the Hurricanes erase a two-goal deficit.
Jamie McBain added a goal and Cam Ward made 33 saves for the Hurricanes, who had their two-game winning streak ended.
The Bruins “are a veteran team that’s gone through these type of games and they came out hard and they gave us a lesson on playing 60 minutes solid," Carolina coach Kirk Muller said.
Anton Khudobin stopped 29 shots in his first start of the season for the Bruins.
Krejci’s winner came after Horton fired a shot toward Ward. The puck made its way to Hamilton, whose cross-ice pass found Krejci in the left circle. He snapped it past Ward into an open net for his first goal of the season.
Also on Monday:
Coyotes 4
Predators 0
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Chad Johnson earned his first NHL shutout in his Phoenix debut and the Coyotes beat Nashville.
Blue Jackets 2
Stars 1
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Vinny Prospal scored from a hard angle at 1:22 of the third and Sergei Bobrovsky had 24 saves to lead Columbus past Dallas.
Oilers 4
Avalanche 1
EDMONTON, Alberta — Devan Dubnyk made 37 saves and Edmonton scored all of its goals on the power play to defeat Colorado.
Kings 3
Canucks 2
LOS ANGELES — Jeff Carter scored Los Angeles’ first power-play goal of the season and added the only score in the shootout, leading the Kings to a comeback victory over Vancouver.
