Carolina Hurricanes vs. Tampa Bay Lightning: Game two lineups and discussion

While Tuesday night’s second-round meeting between the Carolina Hurricanes and Tampa Bay Lightning isn’t technically a must-win affair for the Canes, Carolina really can’t afford to lose it.

The Canes trail the Lightning 1-0 in the series, having dropped the first game 2-1 at home. The Canes will be at home in PNC Arena again Tuesday night, looking to even the series up at 1-1 before heading to Tampa for two games.

In game one, Jake Bean scored the Hurricanes’ lone goal, evening up that game early in the third period. Other than the Bean goal, nothing from Carolina got past one of the league’s best in Tampa’s net in Andrei Vasilevskiy.

As expected, the Hurricanes will be without forward Nino Niederreiter again in game two, as his return is doubtful for this series.

With Alex Nedeljkovic back in goal once again, here’s how the Canes will line up Tuesday night in a near-must win:

Brock McGinn - Sebastian Aho - Teuvo Teravainen
Jordan Martinook - Vincent Trocheck - Martin Necas
Andrei Svechnikov - Jordan Staal - Warren Foegele
Cedric Paquette - Steven Lorentz - Jesper Fast

Jaccob Slavin - Dougie Hamilton
Brady Skjei - Brett Pesce
Jake Bean - Jani Hakanpaa

Alex Nedeljkovic
Petr Mrazek

Injuries and Scratches: Nino Niederreiter (upper body), Antoine Bibeau, James Reimer, Max McCormick, Drew Shore, Joakim Ryan, Maxime Lajoie, Joey Keane, Jake Gardiner, Roland McKeown, Ryan Suzuki, Morgan Geekie

The Lightning took game one in enemy territory, setting itself up nicely as this series progresses.

Brayden Point and Barclay Goodrow were the goal scorers for Tampa in game one, with Vasilevskiy good as always. The Vezina Trophy finalist stopped 37 of 38 shots faced.

The defending Stanley Cup champions will look to steal both games on the road to start the series Tuesday night, creating an incredibly difficult path to advance for the Hurricanes.

With Vasilevskiy in net as always, here’s how the Lightning will hit the ice in PNC Tuesday night:

Ondrej Palat - Brayden Point - Nikita Kucherov
Alex Killorn - Anthony Cirelli - Steven Stamkos
Barclay Goodrow - Yanni Gourde - Blake Coleman
Pat Maroon - Tyler Johnson - Ross Colton

Victor Hedman - Jan Rutta
Ryan McDonagh - Erik Cernak
Mikhail Sergachev - Luke Schenn

Andrei Vasilevskiy
Curtis McElhinney

Injuries and Scratches: David Savard (upper body), Spencer Martin, Christopher Gibson, Fredrik Claesson, Andreas Borgman, Mathieu Joseph, Taylor Raddyish, Boris Katchouk, Gemel Smith, Cal Foote, Ben Thomas, Alex Barre-Boulet, Mitchell Stephens, Daniel Walcott