New York has won two of the three games, including a 3-0 victory at Carolina on Feb. 16. Carolina, which has lost three straight in regulation, including 4-2 to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday, trails the Columbus Blue Jackets by 12 points for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. New York is 13 points behind Columbus.
Players to watch
Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho extended his point streak to four games Saturday (two goals, three assists). Islanders forward Mathew Barzal has a goal and two assists in his past two games and leads NHL rookies with 72 points.
They said it
"There's a lot of players in this room that care and really want to win. We had a solid season throughout at the beginning and halfway through and on, and obviously of late it's been ugly. But there's some good people in this room that really care and that really want to win and that'll come through in the end and that'll help us get to where we want to go. " -- Hurricanes forward Jordan Staal "Your career only lasts so long, so you want to enjoy every second of it and every challenge, no matter how tough it's going sometimes. You just try to look at the positive side of it and try to find a way to break through and hopefully lead to some good things that we can build on individually and as a team." -- Islanders captain John Tavares
Hanifin was injured Saturday and left the game midway through the third period. … Aho (of the Islanders) will replace Davidson, who is a "little banged up," Weight said.
Stat pack
Slavin scored his NHL career-high seventh goal Saturday and leads the Hurricanes with 139 blocked shots. … The Islanders are 6-3-1 in their past 10 games against the Hurricanes.
