Coyotes at Lightning preview

COYOTES (36-30-6) at LIGHTNING (55-13-4)
7:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, TVAS, SUN, FS-A PLUS, NHL.TV

The Lightning lead the second-place Boston Bruins by 19 points in the East with 10 games remaining. They've won four straight and are 16-2-0 in their past 18.
The Coyotes hold a one-point lead over the Minnesota Wild for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference with one game in hand. They're two points behind the Dallas Stars for the first wild card and 10-2-1 in their past 13 games.

Players to watch

Coyotes goalie Darcy Kuemper is 11-2-1 with a 1.84 goals-against average, .942 save percentage and two shutouts in his past 14 starts.
Lightning center Steven Stamkos needs one goal to pass Vincent Lecavalier (383) for most in team history.

They said it

"It's a lot fun playing against some of those guys they have over there. They have one the best players … a couple of the best players in the world. So you just try to rise to the occasion and it's a lot of fun trying to shut them down and hopefully get some offense going too." -- Coyotes forward Michael Grabner
"I don't really think we look at that too much. We're obviously just focusing on how we play our game, getting ready for the playoffs. We don't have many games left so we've got to fine tune everything. Arizona is a hungry team right now so it's going to be a good test for us." -- Lightning forward Tyler Johnson on chance to clinch Presidents' Trophy

Coyotes projected lineup

Richard Panik -- Christian Dvorak -- Clayton Keller
Michael Grabner -- Brad Richardson -- Vinnie Hinostroza
Lawson Crouse -- Nick Cousins -- Josh Archibald
Alex Galchenyuk -- Mario Kempe -- Conor Garland
Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Niklas Hjalmarsson
Alex Goligoski -- Jason Demers
Jakob Chychrun -- Jordan Oesterle
Darcy Kuemper
Calvin Pickard
Scratched:Kevin Connauton, Ilya Lyubushkin, Christian Fischer
Injured:Antti Raanta (lower body), Nick Schmaltz (lower body), Kyle Capobianco (lower body), Derek Stepan (lower body)

Lightning projected lineup

Ondrej Palat -- Steven Stamkos -- J.T. Miller
Tyler Johnson -- Brayden Point -- Nikita Kucherov
Alex Killorn -- Anthony Cirelli -- Mathieu Joseph
Adam Erne -- Cedric Paquette -- Yanni Gourde
Victor Hedman -- Mikhail Sergachev
Ryan McDonagh -- Erik Cernak
Braydon Coburn -- Jan Rutta
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Louis Domingue
Scratched:Ryan Callahan, Danick Martel, Cameron Gaunce
Injured:Dan Girardi (lower body), Anton Stralman (lower body)

Status report

Raanta and Stepan are traveling with the Coyotes for their four-game road trip. … Girardi and Stralman have yet to resume skating. …Gaunce was called up for roster purposes and it's uncertain if he will accompany the Lightning on a three-game road trip beginning at the Washington Capitals on Wednesday.

Stat pack

Arizona has scored 15 shorthanded goals, one from breaking a Coyotes/Winnipeg Jets single-season record set in 1988-89. … Kucherov has 36 points (13 goals, 23 assists) in his past 17 games.