Avalanche at Hurricanes preview

AVALANCHE (37-18-7) at HURRICANES (35-23-4)
7 p.m. ET; FS-CR, ALT, NHL.TV

Forsberg, recalled from Charlotte of the American Hockey League on Sunday, will play his first NHL game since March 26, 2018, with the Chicago Blackhawks. Goalie Alex Nedeljkovic made 12 saves in a 4-1 loss to the Dallas Stars on Tuesday in his League season debut.
Goalies Petr Mrazek (concussion protocol) and James Reimer (lower body) each was injured in a 6-3 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday, when emergency goalie
David Ayres
made eight saves to earn the victory.
Center Sebastian Aho will try to extend his point streak to 14 games (12 goals, seven assists); he has the longest run by a player for the Hurricanes, who are 8-5-1 in their past 14 games and trail the Columbus Blue Jackets by two points for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
The Avalanche, who have won four straight and are 12-3-1 in their past 16 games, are in second place in the Central Division, five points behind the St. Louis Blues and one ahead of the Dallas Stars.
Colorado can win its seventh straight road game and tie the longest streak in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history (Jan. 10-Feb. 7, 1999).

Players to watch

Avalanche goalie Pavel Francouz will make his sixth straight start; he's 4-0-1 with a 1.56 goals-against average, .941 save percentage and one shutout in his past five starts.
Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov had 13 points (five goals, eight assists) in an 11-game point streak.

They said it

"I find Carolina to be highly competitive. It doesn't matter which line is on the ice. … It's a game where you have to bring your highest level of compete if you want to win it." -- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar
"This moment shouldn't be too big for him. He's been around long enough and he's played in the NHL before. We're looking for him to have a big one." -- Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour on goalie Anton Forsberg

Avalanche projected lineup

Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Valeri Nichushkin
Tyson Jost -- J.T. Compher -- Joonas Donskoi
Vladislav Namestnikov -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Martin Kaut
Logan O'Connor -- Vladislav Kamenev -- Mark Barberio
Ryan Graves -- Cale Makar
Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Ian Cole -- Nikita Zadorov
Pavel Francouz
Michael Hutchinson
Scratched: None
Injured:Andre Burakovsky (upper body), Matt Calvert (lower body), Nazem Kadri (lower body), Philipp Grubauer (lower body), Matt Nieto (upper body), Mikko Rantanen (upper body), Colin Wilson (lower body)

Hurricanes projected lineup

Andrei Svechnikov -- Sebastian Aho -- Teuvo Teravainen
Warren Foegele -- Jordan Staal -- Justin Williams
Nino Niederreiter -- Vincent Trocheck -- Martin Necas
Ryan Dzingel -- Jordan Martinook -- Brock McGinn
Jaccob Slavin -- Joel Edmundson
Jake Gardiner -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Haydn Fleury -- Brady Skjei
Anton Forsberg
Alex Nedeljkovic
Scratched: None
Injured:Dougie Hamilton (broken fibula), Petr Mrazek (concussion protocol), James Reimer (lower body), Brett Pesce (upper body)

Status report

Burakovsky could return after missing two games. … Mrazek and Reimer have not resumed practicing.

Stat pack

The Avalanche have killed 12 straight penalties through their past six games. … Aho's point streak is tied with Blaine Stoughton (1981-82) for the third longest in Hurricanes/Hartford Whalers history, trailing Mike Rogers (18 games in 1980-81; 17 games in 1979-80).