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(Sports Network) - The Pittsburgh Penguins will try to hold onto first place in the Atlantic Division when the reigning Stanley Cup champions return to Mellon Arena for a Saturday matinee against the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Penguins enter today's play clinging to a one-point edge over New Jersey in the Atlantic standings and regained sole possession of first place in the division after Thursday's 3-0 victory at Boston. The Devils, who host St. Louis this evening, were dealt an overtime loss in Toronto on Thursday.

Pittsburgh used an outstanding all-around effort to prevent the Bruins from avenging a 2-1 loss to the Penguins on March 7, a game that was marred by a questionable hit by agitator Matt Cooke on Boston's Marc Savard that caused the standout center to suffer a potentially season-ending concussion. Tyler Kennedy, Alexei Ponikarovsky and Michael Rupp all scored goals and netminder Marc-Andre Fleury needed to make only 17 saves to record his first shutout of the season.

"My teammates did great," said Fleury of the defensive effort. "They kept everybody on the outside and didn't give [the Bruins] much. If there was a rebound, they were there to take it away."

Thursday's win enabled the Penguins to complete a five-game road trip with a 2-2-1 record. Pittsburgh started the trek with a 4-3 overtime loss to the Hurricanes on March 11, Carolina's fourth triumph in its last five regular- season matchups with the Pens.

The Hurricanes lost their next two contests following that game, but bounced back nicely with Thursday's 4-3 overtime verdict over Eastern Conference leader Washington in Raleigh. Ray Whitney scored with just under a minute to go in the extra session to give Carolina the two points.

Down 2-1 after two periods, the Hurricanes moved in front on goals by Brett Carson and Chad LaRose, with LaRose's tally coming with just 1:35 remaining in regulation. However, Washington forced overtime when Eric Fehr pushed a shot past Carolina goaltender Justin Peters with 9.5 seconds left on the game clock.

Peters finished with 25 saves in an otherwise-solid performance between the pipes, while Eric Staal had a goal and an assist to pace the Hurricanes offensively.

"We played really well [Thursday]," Peters said. "Didn't give them a lot of grade A chances, [had] a couple big blocks, good rebounds, and [being] able to come through at the end was pretty special."

Carolina played a good portion of Thursday's test without defenseman Alexandre Picard, with the in-season acquisition exiting with an upper-body injury that has him listed as day-to-day.

Pittsburgh swept the Hurricanes in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference Finals last season, but Carolina has won two of the three meetings between the clubs thus far in 2009-10.