Coyotes at Hurricanes preview

COYOTES (25-37-11) at HURRICANES (31-31-11)
7 p.m. ET; FS-A, FS-CR, NHL.TV

Rask and Pesce each will be out for the rest of the season after dealing with a shoulder injury sustained earlier this season.
The Hurricanes, 4-10-12 in their past 16 games, trail the New Jersey Devils by nine points for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference with nine games to play. Goaltender Cam Ward will start.
Goaltender Darcy Kuemper will start for the Coyotes, 7-3-1 in their past 11 games and 12-5-1 in their past 18. Arizona was eliminated from playoff contention on March 14.

Players to watch

Coyotes forward Clayton Keller has seven points (two goals, five assists) in a six-game point streak. He set Arizona rookie records with his 35th assist and 55th point in a 4-1 win at the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday.
Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho has eight points (three goals, five assists) in a six-game point streak.

They said it

"I thought he was around the puck and he tried to play a good defensive game. He got some power-play time. I want to give him that kind of ice time to see what he can do. He cashed in, hopefully that loosens him up even more. It's a back-to-back game on Thursday. I want to see him again." -- Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet on center Dylan Strome, who scored against Buffalo on Wednesday after being recalled from Tucson of the American Hockey League on Tuesday
"[They Coyotes] are playing fast. They have the ability to move the puck from their back end. I think their transition game is real good. We'll have to do a good job on the forecheck." -- Hurricanes coach Bill Peters

Coyotes projected lineup

Clayton Keller -- Derek Stepan -- Richard Panik
Max Domi -- Christian Dvorak -- Josh Archibald
Brendan Perlini -- Dylan Strome -- Christian Fischer
Jordan Martinook -- Brad Richardson -- Nick Cousins
Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Kevin Connauton
Jakob Chychrun -- Niklas Hjalmarsson
Alex Goligoski -- Luke Schenn
Darcy Kuemper
Antti Raanta
Scratched:Freddie Hamilton, Trevor Murphy, Zac Rinaldo
Injured: Jason Demers (upper body), Laurent Dauphin (lower body)

Hurricanes projected lineup

Valentin Zykov -- Sebastian Aho -- Teuvo Teravainen
Brock McGinn -- Jordan Staal -- Justin Williams
Jeff Skinner -- Elias Lindholm -- Lee Stempniak
Joakim Nordstrom -- Derek Ryan -- Phillip Di Giuseppe
Jaccob Slavin -- Justin Faulk
Klas Dahlbeck --
Roland McKeown
Haydn Fleury -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Cam Ward
Scott Darling
Scratched: None
Injured: Noah Hanifin (concussion), Victor Rask (shoulder), Brett Pesce (shoulder)

Status report

The Coyotes did not hold a morning skate. … The Hurricanes recalled McKeown from Charlotte of the American Hockey League on Wednesday.

Stat pack

Stepan has 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in his past 10 games. Teravainen has seven points (three goals, four assists) in a six-game point streak.