Banged-up Hurricanes to start Peters vs. Avalanche

DENVER -- The Carolina Hurricanes will hobble into Pepsi Center on Friday to play the Colorado Avalanche with two goalies who began the season in the American Hockey League.

Justin Peters, who replaced injured Cam Ward early in the first period against the Minnesota Wild in a 3-1 loss Thursday, will start in goal against the Avalanche.

Ward sustained a lower-body injury when he kicked out his right leg in an attempt to stop a shot by Mikael Granlund that went wide. Ward has been placed on injured reserve and is expected to miss 3-4 weeks.

Peters, who stopped 19 of 21 shots Thursday, had been recalled from the Charlotte Checkers of the American Hockey League on Oct. 14 after backup goalie Anton Khudobin sustained a lower-body injury in an Oct. 13 game against the Phoenix Coyotes.

The Hurricanes called up Mike Murphy from Charlotte on an emergency basis Friday to dress as Peters' backup against the Avalanche. A sixth-round pick (No. 165) in the 2008 NHL Draft, Murphy is 1-2-0 with a 3.81 goals-against average in three AHL games this season.

The Hurricanes also lost left wing Jeff Skinner (upper body) and defenseman Brett Bellemore (lower body) to injuries Thursday.

Defenseman Tim Gleason, who missed the first 10 games because of a concussion, was activated from injured reserve and will play in his 600th NHL game Friday. Gleason was hurt in a Sept. 21 preseason game against the Montreal Canadiens.

Rookie forward Elias Lindholm also will return to the Hurricanes lineup after missing five games with a shoulder injury he sustained in an Oct. 11 game against the Los Angeles Kings.

Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson will test his bruised foot in the pregame warm-up. He was hit with a puck in practice Wednesday. If Johnson doesn't feel right, Tyson Barrie will replace him in the lineup. Barrie has been a healthy scratch since Ryan Wilson returned from a knee injury Oct. 12 in Washington.

Here are the projected lineups for the game Friday:

HURRICANES

Jiri Tlusty - Eric Staal - Alexander Semin

Nathan Gerbe - Jordan Staal - Radek Dvorak

Drayson Bowman - Riley Nash - Tuomo Ruutu

Brett Sutter - Elias Lindholm - Kevin Westgarth

Andrej Sekera - Justin Faulk

Tim Gleason - Ryan Murphy

Mike Komisarek - Ron Hainsey

Justin Peters

Mike Murphy

Scratched: Jay Harrison

Injured: Brett Bellemore (lower body), Patrick Dwyer (upper body), Anton Khudobin (lower body), Joni Pitkanen (heel), Jeff Skinner (upper body), Cam Ward (lower body)

AVALANCHE

Ryan O'Reilly - Matt Duchene - Steve Downie

Gabriel Landeskog - Paul Stastny - Alex Tanguay

Jamie McGinn - Nathan MacKinnon - PA Parenteau

Marc-Andre Cliche - John Mitchell - Patrick Bordeleau

Andre Benoit - Cory Sarich

Jan Hejda - Tyson Barrie/Erik Johnson

Ryan Wilson - Nate Guenin

Semyon Varlamov

Jean-Sebastien Giguere

Scratched: Nick Holden

Suspended: Cody McLeod

Injured: Erik Johnson (foot)