Hurricanes at Avalanche preview

HURRICANES (37-24-7) at AVALANCHE (30-27-12)
9 p.m. ET; ALT, FS-CR, NHL.TV

The Hurricanes trail the Pittsburgh Penguins by two points and hold the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. They are 6-1-1 in their past eight games and 9-2-1 in their past 12.
The Avalanche could move into a tie in points with the Minnesota Wild for the second wild card from the Western Conference. They're 2-3-0 in their past five games after going 6-1-1 in their previous eight, but 5-0-1 in their past six home games.

Players to watch

Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho has 10 points (six goals, four assists) in his past eight games.
Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon has 10 points (five goals, five assists) in his past eight games.

They said it

"Everybody's desperate. We're desperate, they're desperate, other teams are desperate. The last 10 games really matter. For us and them, they really matter, right? These are important points for everybody, regardless of how high they are in the standings." -- Hurricanes forward Justin Williams
"It's going to be really important for us to continue to play well at home. We've got (eight) home games left and if we continue to play well at home, maybe that's going to give us the slight advantage we need to try and get into the playoffs." -- Avalanche defenseman Tyson Barrie

Hurricanes projected lineup

Nino Niederreiter -- Sebastian Aho -- Justin Williams
Andrei Svechnikov -- Jordan Staal -- Teuvo Teravainen
Brock McGinn - Lucas Wallmark - Jordan Martinook
Warren Foegele -- Greg McKegg -- Saku Maenalanen
Jaccob Slavin -- Dougie Hamilton
Brett Pesce -- Justin Faulk
Calvin de Haan -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Petr Mrazek
Curtis McElhinney
Scratched:None
Injured:Micheal Ferland (upper body)

Avalanche projected lineup

Derick Brassard -- Nathan MacKinnon -- J.T. Compher
Colin Wilson -- Carl Soderberg - Mikko Rantanen
Alex Kerfoot -- Tyson Jost -- Matt Calvert
Gabriel Bourque - Andrew Agozzino -- Sven Andrighetto
Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Ian Cole -- Tyson Barrie
Nikita Zadorov -- Patrik Nemeth
Philipp Grubauer
Semyon Varlamov
Scratched:Ryan Graves
Injured: Mark Barberio (leg), Vladislav Kamenev (shoulder), Gabriel Landeskog (upper body), Matt Nieto (leg)

Status report

Ferland is expected to miss his second game in a row.

Stat pack

Mrazek is 5-0-0 with a 1.99 goals-against average and .935 save percentage in his past five starts. … Staal needs one point for 500 in the NHL … Rantanen has 10 points (six goals, four assists) in his past 10 games.