Avs at Canes - Game Preview

by Bob Wage on Feb 22, 2009 12:48 PM EST in Hurricanes Game Related

Today is Military Appreciation Day at the RBC and the Colorado Avalanche are in Raleigh to tangle with the Carolina Hurricanes for a matinee game starting at 3PM. The Hurricanes have won two games in a row while the Avs are starting to get healthier and have won three in a row, all on the road. The Canes have been good at breaking up losing streaks, can they do the same as far as winning streaks go?

Colorado will be starting Andrew Raycroft for the fourth straight game. Look for Cam Ward to be in net for Carolina for the seventh consecutive contest.

	GP	MIN	W	L	T	EGA	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2008 - Cam Ward	47	2724	24	19	3	9	116	2.56	1288	1172	.910	4

	GP	MIN	W	L	T	EGA	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2008 - Andrew Raycroft	20	1123	12	7	0	1	55	2.94	541	486	.898	0

Ryan Smyth, Milan Hejduk, and Wojtek Wolski are the leading scorers for the Avs.

	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	SOG	PCT
2008 - Ryan Smyth	59	20	29	49	-6	52	8	1	3	0	194	10.3

	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	SOG	PCT
2008 - Milan Hejduk	59	21	24	45	-6	8	8	1	2	1	160	13.1

	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	SOG	PCT
2008 - Wojtek Wolski	58	13	22	35	-3	24	2	1	3	0	121	10.7

The Hurricanes are led by Ray Whitney, Eric Staal, and Tuomo Ruutu.

	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	SOG	PCT
2008 - Ray Whitney	60	18	31	49	-12	20	3	0	1	2	167	10.8

	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	SOG	PCT
2008 - Eric Staal	60	27	19	46	4	44	11	0	8	0	269	10.0

	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	SOG	PCT
2008 - Tuomo Ruutu	57	16	20	36	-3	61	4	0	3	0	122	13.1

The lineup is expected to be the same for the Hurricanes as it has been for the last two victories.

Staal, Ruutu, Samsonov
Cullen, Whitney, LaRose
Brind'Amour, Eaves, Ryan
Jokinen, Bayda, Conboy
Corvo, Gleason
Babchuk, Seidenberg
Wallin, Kaberle

Remember, the coaches will do a lot of mixing and matching, including having Conboy help out on the blueline at times. Jokinen will be moved up to play wing on the third line as well.

The Canes can ill afford to take this afternoon off as both Florida and Buffalo won last night, increasing their leads to 3 points over Carolina in the race to the playoffs.

The game will not be broadcast locally on television, so either check out Center Ice, listen to Chuck on 99.9 The Fan, or try the same old online options that have worked well in the past. We will have the "Live Game Thread" as always here starting at about 2:45.

To read about the Avs perspective, you can take a gander at Mile High Hockey.

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Regarding some local hockey news, the Blue Ridge Hockey Conference Tournament has been going on full tilt this weekend. (forgot to mention this earlier, sorry about that). The championship game will be this afternoon at 1:30 at the ECU home ice rink in Greenville, NC. ECU made it to the finals and I believe will be facing a tough George Washington squad. Janeybell has been covering this over at Carolina on Ice. Nice job Janeybell and good luck to the Pirates!

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