At the Rink: Stars at Hurricanes

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Dallas Stars will be without defenseman John Klingberg, who left the game Tuesday against the Philadelphia Flyers with an upper-body injury, when they face the Carolina Hurricanes. Jason Demers, who missed the game with an illness, could take Klingberg's spot in the lineup.

The Stars remain on the fringe of the Stanley Cup Playoff race in the Western Conference following a 2-1 win at the Flyers. After winning three out of four, the Stars are showing the kind of commitment that keeps a team in the hunt.

"You have lulls in the season where maybe a shot lane doesn't mean as much to a player [as it does now]," Dallas coach Lindy Ruff said. "Right now we see Ales Hemsky going down blocking shots, you see Jason Spezza going sideways to block shots. It's the desperation, where, if you've made a bad play, you get back to your own end if that half of a second makes a difference."

The Hurricanes have lost three of four (1-2-1), including a 4-3 shootout loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday. Carolina might reunite Eric Staal and Jordan Staal on the top line, where they have been effective for much of the season.

That might not be the only shift in the lineup. Defenseman Ryan Murphy is among the Hurricanes who are battling illnesses.

"We've got some guys with a little flu bug going through [the locker room]," coach Bill Peters said. "We had a day off yesterday where we didn't have much contact with the guys. We will warm everybody up tonight to make sure we're covered."

Here are the projected lineups:

STARS

Jamie Benn - Tyler Seguin - Patrick Eaves

Antoine Roussel - Jason Spezza - Ales Hemsky

Curtis McKenzie - Shawn Horcoff - Brett Ritchie

Ryan Garbutt - Vernon Fiddler - Colton Sceviour

Alex Goligoski - Jason Demers

Jordie Benn - Patrik Nemeth

Jamie Oleksiak - Jyrki Jokipakka

Kari Lehtonen

Jhonas Enroth

Scratched: Cody Eakin

Injured: John Klingberg (upper body), Trevor Daley (lower body), Travis Moen (upper body) Valeri Nichushkin (hip)

HURRICANES

Eric Staal - Jordan Staal - Alexander Semin

Jeff Skinner - Riley Nash - Elias Lindholm

Chris Terry - Victor Rask - Andrej Nestrasil

Nathan Gerbe - Jordan Staal - Patrick Dwyer

Ron Hainsey - Justin Faulk

Ryan Murphy - Rasmus Rissanen

Michal Jordan - Brett Bellemore

Anton Khudobin

Cam Ward

Scratched: John-Michael Liles, Brad Malone

Injured: Jack Hillen (concussion)

Status report: Khudobin will start for Carolina, which has divided playing time almost equally between Khudobin and Ward since the start of 2015. "We've gone game-by-game all year and we won't change that now," Peters said. "I don't want to simply get into a rotation. I want it to be much more competitive than that."

Who's hot: Fiddler has four goals in the past four games. ... Sceviour has three assists in the past two games. ... Lindholm has three goals and three assists in the past two games. ... Eric Staal has five assists in the past two games. ... Faulk had one goal and two assists against Columbus.