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The Hurricanes take on the Penguins for the first of four matchups between the two teams in the next three weeks. The Canes come off of an encouraging win against the Islanders yesterday as they try to keep up with the Eastern Conference playoff race.
Vital Statistics
| Category | Hurricanes | Blue Jackets |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Hurricanes | Blue Jackets |
| Record | 21-7-3 | 13-13-7 |
| Goals/Game | 3.23 | 2.54 |
| Goals Against/Game | 2.48 | 3.12 |
| Shots/Game | 31.52 | 28.70 |
| Face Off Win % | 54.4% | 46.2% |
| Power Play % (Rank) | 30.6% (1st) | 14.8% (26th) |
| Penalty Kill % (Rank) | 82.9% (9th) | 74.0% (26th) |
| ES Corsi For % | 53.04% | 46.16% |
| ES PDO | 100.96 | 99.42 |
| PIM/Game | 07:21 | 06:43 |
Goaltender #1
| Category | James Reimer | Joonas Korpisalo |
|---|---|---|
| Category | James Reimer | Joonas Korpisalo |
| Record | 12-4-1 | 8-10-5 |
| Save % | 0.909 | .900 |
| GAA | 2.68 | 2.98 |
Goaltender #2
| Category | Alex Nedeljkovic | Elvis Merzlikins |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Alex Nedeljkovic | Elvis Merzlikins |
| Record | 7-2-2 | 5-3-2 |
| Save % | .930 | .912 |
| GAA | 1.96 | 2.91 |
Game Notes
- The Hurricanes and Penguins are meeting for the first of four matchups this season. They will meet three more times before the end of March — talk about a scheduling quirk.
- The two teams last met on March 31st of 2019, when the Penguins picked up a win by a score of 3-1.
- Vincent Trocheck is a native of Pittsburgh, and has tallied nine points (3g, 6a) in 11 games against the Penguins.
- The Canes are closing out their 12th of 16 back-to-back sets this season. The Canes are 7-5-0 in the first game of a back-to-back this season, while they’re 6-4-1 in the second game.
- Justin Williams tallied a goal against the Islanders yesterday and extended his goal streak to three games. He’s picked up 8 points (5g, 3a) in 18 games thus far with the Canes this season.
Lines And Rosters
Hurricanes
The Hurricanes will likely make a change in goal today on the second half of a back-to-back set. We can expect for the rest of the lineup to remain the same after the win yesterday in New York, although Morgan Geekie was called up as insurance in case someone was banged up yesterday and can’t go today (UPDATE: Morgan Geekie will indeed make his NHL debut today with Ryan Dzingel out with an upper body injury).
Andrei Svechnikov - Sebastian Aho - Teuvo Teravainen
Warren Foegele - Vincent Trocheck - Martin Necas
Brock McGinn - Jordan Staal - Justin Williams
Nino Niederreiter - Morgan Geekie - Jordan Martinook -
Joel Edmundson - Jaccob Slavin
Haydn Fleury - Brady Skjei
Jake Gardiner - Trevor van Riemsdyk
Anton Forsberg
Alex Nedeljkovic
Injuries and Scratches: Dougie Hamilton (IR leg), Brett Pesce (shoulder), Petr Mrazek (concussion), James Reimer (lower body), Sami Vatanen (leg), Ryan Dzingel (upper body)
Penguins
The Penguins have struggled lately, with just a 3-7-0 record in their last 10 games after losing 5-2 to the Capitals yesterday. Here’s how they expect to line up:
Jason Zucker - Sidney Crosby - Conor Sheary
Patrick Marleau - Evgeni Malkin -Bryan Rust
Jared McCann - Nick Bjugstad - Patric Hornqvist
Brandon Tanev - Teddy Blueger - Sam Lafferty
Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson - John Marino
Jack Johnson - Justin Schultz
Tristan Jarry
Matt Murray
Injuries and scratches: Zach Aston-Reese (lower-body), Juuso Riikola (healthy), Chad Ruhwedel (healthy), Dominik Simon (upper-body), Anthony Angello (upper-body), Evan Rodrigues (healthy), Jake Guentzel (IR shoulder)