Stars at Hurricanes preview

STARS (29-23-5) at HURRICANES (30-22-6)
8 p.m. ET; FS-SW, FS-CR, NHL.TV

The Hurricanes, who trail the Pittsburgh Penguins by one point for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the Eastern Conference heading into play Saturday, defeated the Edmonton Oilers 3-1 on Friday.
The Stars own the first wild card in the Western Conference and are tied in points (63) with the St. Louis Blues for third in the Central Division. Dallas is 1-2-1 in its past four games after a five-game winning streak.
Dallas recalled center
Joel L'Esperance
from Texas of the American Hockey League on Friday. L'Esperance, who leads the AHL with 27 goals in 49 games, will make his NHL debut and play on the second power-play unit.

Players to watch

Stars center Tyler Seguin has 11 points (seven goals, four assists) in his past nine games.
Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho has 21 points (eight goals, 13 assists) in his past 15 games.

They said it

"[The Hurricanes] are the most frenetic team in the League, and they're an exciting team to watch. But we're going to control the middle of the ice and we're going to defend well. We think if we do those things, we're going to get opportunities going the other way." -- Stars coach Jim Mongomery
"I don't read a lot into the back-to-backs. That's a myth, that it's tougher to play on a back-to-back. But having four lines you can play is pivotal. You might have a line that's not going, but we need everyone to contribute on this team. " -- Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour

Stars projected lineup

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

#

Hurricanes projected lineup

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

Status report

The Hurricanes did not hold a morning skate. Bishop skated after the morning skate and Montgomery expects him to return to the lineup next week. ... The Stars re-assigned Denis Gurianov to Texas of the AHL on Friday.

Stat pack

Radulov has five points (one goal, four assists) in his past six games. ... Benn has four assists in his past five games ...Teravainen has 14 points (seven goals, seven assists) in his past 11 games. ... Niederreiter has 10 points (six goals, four assists) in his past nine games. ... Williams has nine points (one goal, eight assists) in his past eight games.