Hurricanes at Capitals preview

HURRICANES (34-32-11) at CAPITALS (46-24-7)7 p.m. ET; NBCSW, FS-CR, NHL.TV

The Capitals lead the Pittsburgh Penguins by five points with one game in hand. Washington is 9-1-0 in its past 10 games and 10-3-0 in March. The Capitals clinched a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Thursday when the New Jersey Devils lost 4-3 in overtime to Pittsburgh.
Carolina is 10 points behind the Devils for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference and will be eliminated with a loss of any kind or a shootout win. The Hurricanes are 3-1-0 in their past four games.

Players to watch

Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho has 12 points (four goals, eight assists) in his past 10 games.
Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov has five goals and eight assists during a six-game point streak.

They said It

"You can't give them much time and space, and they're going to hurt you on the power play. … We must be dialed in like we were when we played them the last two games twice there back-to-back [in January]. We've got to play that way." -- Hurricanes coach Bill Peters, whose team split games against the Capitals Jan. 11 and 12.
"I'm pretty sure in this locker room everybody is tired of being a very good team in the [regular] season and in the playoffs we don't get success. I hope with this group of guys we have right now we can take a step forward and stay longer in the playoffs." -- Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin on clinching a playoff spot for the 10th time in 11 seasons

Hurricanes projected lineup

Brock McGinn -- Jordan Staal -- Justin Williams
Jeff Skinner -- Elias Lindholm -- Phillip Di Giuseppe
Valentin Zykov -- Sebastian Aho -- Teuvo Teravainen
Joakim Nordstrom -- Derek Ryan -- Lee Stempniak
Jaccob Slavin -- Klas Dahlbeck
Noah Hanifin -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Haydn Fleury -- Justin Faulk
Cam Ward
Scott Darling
Scratched:None
Injured:Victor Rask (shoulder), Brett Pesce (shoulder)

Capitals projected lineup

Alex Ovechkin -- Evgeny Kuznetsov -- Tom Wilson
Andre Burakovsky -- Nicklas Backstrom -- T.J. Oshie
Jakub Vrana -- Lars Eller -- Devante Smith-Pelly
Chandler Stephenson -- Jay Beagle -- Brett Connolly
Dmitry Orlov -- Matt Niskanen
Michal Kempny -- John Carlson
Brooks Orpik -- Christian Djoos
Braden Holtby
Philipp Grubauer
Scratched: Jakub Jerabek, Shane Gersich, Alex Chiasson
Injured:None

Status report

Ward will make his fourth start in five games. … Holtby will start consecutive games for the first time since March 3 and 6. Vrana and Connolly return to the lineup after being healthy scratches on Wednesday against the New York Rangers.

Stat pack

The Hurricanes have scored at least four goals in three of the past four games, but have allowed at least four in six of the past nine. … Ovechkin has 11 points (five goals, six assists) in his past nine games. He leads the NHL with 45 goals, two more than Winnipeg Jets forward Patrik Laine.