Hurricanes at Penguins preview

HURRICANES (18-13-8) at PENGUINS (20-18-3)
7 p.m. ET; ATTSN-PT, FS-SE, NHL.TV

Dumoulin took a puck to the head from Philadelphia Flyers forward Claude Giroux during a 5-1 win Tuesday and is day to day with a concussion, Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said.
Pittsburgh will attempt to win consecutive games for the first time since Dec. 1-2, when it defeated the Buffalo Sabres twice by a combined score of 9-1. The Penguins are 4-7-0 in their past 11 games and have been held to one goal or fewer in five of their past 10 games.
The Hurricanes look to bounce back from two straight losses (0-1-1) after winning seven of their previous eight games (7-1-0). They defeated the Penguins 2-1 at PNC Arena last Friday.
Carolina (44 points) holds the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference, tied with the New York Islanders (the Hurricanes have played one fewer game) and one point ahead of Pittsburgh.

Players to watch

Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho has seven points (four goals, three assists) in a five-game point streak. He scored the winning goal with 1:55 remaining in the third period against Pittsburgh last Friday.
Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin has 10 points (five goals, five assists) in his past eight games.

They said it

"We have to start playing better. We have to start playing the way we did prior to Christmas. We were at a higher level then." -- Hurricanes coach Bill Peters
"We have the injury bug right now. We have guys that can step up, step in and fill those roles." -- Penguins defenseman Justin Schultz

Hurricanes projected lineup

Sebastian Aho -- Jordan Staal -- Teuvo Teravainen
Brock McGinn -- Derek Ryan -- Elias Lindholm
Jeff Skinner -- Lucas Wallmark -- Phillip Di Giuseppe
Joakim Nordstrom -- Victor Rask -- Justin Williams
Jaccob Slavin -- Brett Pesce
Haydn Fleury -- Justin Faulk
Noah Hanifin -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Cam Ward
Scott Darling
Scratched:Klas Dahlbeck, Aleksi Saarela, Josh Jooris
Injured:Marcus Kruger (lower body), Lee Stempniak (lower body)

Penguins projected lineup

Dominik Simon -- Sidney Crosby -- Conor Sheary
Patric Hornqvist -- Evgeni Malkin -- Phil Kessel
Carl Hagelin -- Jake Guentzel -- Daniel Sprong
Tom Kuhnhackl -- Riley Sheahan -- Ryan Reaves
Matt Hunwick -- Kris Letang
Olli Maatta -- Jamie Oleksiak
Ian Cole -- Justin Schultz
Matt Murray
Tristan Jarry
Scratched: Frank Corrado
Injured: Bryan Rust (upper body), Chad Ruhwedel (upper body), Brian Dumoulin (concussion), Carter Rowney (upper body)

Status report

Kruger was placed on injured reserve Wednesday. … Jarry skated with the Penguins two days after injuring his wrist against Philadelphia. … Rowney will miss a minimum of four weeks, Sullivan said.

Stat pack

Carolina has earned a point in 29 of its past 37 games (20-8-9) against Eastern Conference opponents dating back to Feb. 24, 2017. … Pittsburgh is 17-for-58 on the power play (29.3 percent) since Nov. 24, which is second in the NHL. Its penalty kill (50-for-55, 90.9 percent) is third during the same stretch.