Coyotes at Blue Jackets preview

COYOTES (7-19-5) at BLUE JACKETS (18-10-1)
7 p.m. ET; FS-O, FS-A+, NHL.TV

They moved into first place by rallying for a 5-3 win at the New Jersey Devils on Friday. Forward Artemi Panarin had the primary assist on each of the five goals. Columbus has won nine of its past 12 games.
Arizona is 0-1-1 entering the third game of a four-game road trip that ends Sunday against the Chicago Blackhawks. Antti Raanta will start for the Coyotes. He has not played in seven games since sustaining an upper-body injury in a game against the San Jose Sharks on Nov. 22.

Players to watch

Coyotes center Derek Stepan has 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in his past 11 games.
Panarin has nine points (two goals, seven assists) in his past four games. His five assists Friday tied the single-game team record set by Espen Knutsen on March 24, 2001. Panarin is the fifth Blue Jackets player to have five points in a game.

They said it

"It's been a tough schedule, but we're a young team so I don't think it weighs on us too much. We can't control the schedule but we can control our effort tonight." -- Coyotes left wing Anthony Duclair, whose team is playing its 20th road game, most in the NHL
"Who cares? It's 30 games into the season. We have 52 left. We're not going to get caught up in that. We're just trying to be the best team we can be every night." -- Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella on the tight Metropolitan Division race

Coyotes projected lineup

Clayton Keller -- Derek Stepan -- Tobias Rieder
Max Domi -- Christian Dvorak -- Christian Fischer
Brendan Perlini -- Dylan Strome -- Anthony Duclair
Jordan Martinook -- Brad Richardson -- Zac Rinaldo
Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Jason Demers
Jakob Chychrun -- Alex Goligoski
Kyle Capobianco -- Luke Schenn
Antti Raanta
Scott Wedgewood
Scratched: Nick Cousins, Kevin Connauton
Injured: Niklas Hjalmarsson (upper body)

Blue Jackets projected lineup

Artemi Panarin -- Pierre-Luc Dubois -- Josh Anderson
Nick Foligno -- Alex Wennberg -- Sonny Milano
Matt Calvert -- Brandon Dubinsky -- Oliver Bjorkstrand
Boone Jenner -- Lukas Sedlak -- Markus Hannikainen
Zach Werenski -- Seth Jones
Jack Johnson -- David Savard
Scott Harrington -- Markus Nutivaara
Joonas Korpisalo
Sergei Bobrovsky
Scratched: Gabriel Carlsson, Tyler Motte, Cam Atkinson
Injured: Ryan Murray (upper body)

Status report

The Blue Jackets did not hold a morning skate. ... Forward Sonny Milano was recalled from Cleveland of the American Hockey League on Saturday. He may replace Atkinson, who did not take a shift in the third period Friday. No reason was given for Atkinson's benching. … Korpisalo might start after Bobrovsky played Friday.

Stat pack

Arizona is 1-3-2 in the past six games after going 4-1-0 in its previous five. … For the third time since Nov. 28, the Blue Jackets will play the second of a back-to-back against an opponent that did not play the night before. They split the first two.