Hurricanes at Stars preview

HURRICANES (32-23-6) at STARS (30-25-5)
5 p.m. ET; FS-SW, FS-CR, NHL.TV

The center, who missed 23 games with a concussion, returned to practice on Feb. 14 for the Hurricanes, who trail the Pittsburgh Penguins by one point for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. He was activated from IR on Saturday morning.
Carolina is 4-1-0 in its past five games and 10-3-1 in its past 14.
Goalie Ben Bishop, who missed six games with an upper-body injury, will start for the Stars for the first time since Feb. 4; he dressed as the backup to Anton Khudobin in a 5-2 win against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.
Forward Alexander Radulov will not play because of an illness.
Dallas, 1-3-0 in its past four games and 2-4-1 in its past seven following a five-game winning streak, holds the first wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference, three points ahead of the Minnesota Wild.

Players to watch

Hurricanes forward Justin Williams has nine points (four goals, five assists) in his past six games and 13 points (four goals, nine assists) in his past 11.
Stars forward Jamie Benn scored two goals against the Blues on Thursday after having four assists in his previous nine games.

They said it

"I'm excited about getting back and hopefully helping the team get more W's." -- Hurricanes center Jordan Staal
"We think he's ready to go back in game action. We'll make a decision about tomorrow tomorrow." -- Stars coach Jim Montgomery on goalie Ben Bishop

Hurricanes projected lineup

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

Stars projected lineup

Jamie Benn -- Radek Faksa -- Blake Comeau
Roope Hintz -- Tyler Seguin -- Jason Spezza
Mattias Janmark -- Jason Dickinson -- Valeri Nichushkin
Andrew Cogliano -- Joel L'Esperance -- Brett Ritchie
Esa Lindell -- John Klingberg
Miro Heiskanen -- Roman Polak
Jamie Oleksiak -- Taylor Fedun
Ben Bishop
Anton Khudobin
Scratched: Julius Honka, Ben Lovejoy
Injured: Stephen Johns (upper body), Marc Methot (lower body), Martin Hanzal (back), Tyler Pitlick (upper body), Alexander Radulov (illness)

Status report

The Stars acquired Lovejoy in a trade with the New Jersey Devils for defenseman Connor Carrick and a third-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft on Saturday. Lovejoy, a 35-year-old defenseman who can become an unrestricted free agent July 1, is not expected to arrive in time to face the Hurricanes. ... Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said Friday he had not decided where Staal would fit into the lineup or which goalie would start.

Stat pack

Niederreiter has 15 points (nine goals, six assists) in 15 games with the Hurricanes after being acquired in a trade with the Wild on Jan. 17. … Teravainen has nine points (five goals, four assists) in his past eight games. … Seguin has 12 points (eight goals, four assists) in his past 10 games.