Rangers at Hurricanes preview

RANGERS (25-25-8) at HURRICANES (31-22-6)
7 p.m. ET; FS-CR, MSG, NHL.TV

The Hurricanes, who are 9-2-1 in their past 12 games and 16-5-1 since Dec. 31, trail the Pittsburgh Penguins by one point for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. Carolina is also one point behind the Columbus Blue Jackets for third place in the Metropolitan Division.
The Rangers are 7-5-1 in their past 13 games and 11 points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the second wild card from the East. They have scored at least four goals in four of their past six games.
New York is 26-6-0 against Carolina since Feb. 22, 2011.

Players to watch

Rangers center Mika Zibanejad has 23 points (14 goals, nine assists) in his past 15 games.
Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho has 22 points (eight goals, 14 assists) in his past 16 games.

They said it

"I think we've been playing really well. The games we've won, we deserved to win. We haven't had a lot of games this year when we've played bad and won. Most wins we've had, I think we earned them. But you start with that and you build from that -- working hard, and putting in the right attitude and mindset. You start with that and the rest will come."-- Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist
"We certainly worked hard, and I give the guys full marks for digging in. Obviously, our goaltenders were good this weekend. You could see the toll it took on us, the amount of games we played in a short period of time. Now we should be refreshed and ready to go again. -- Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour on playing six games in 10 days.

Rangers projected lineup

Chris Kreider -- Mika Zibanejad -- Mats Zuccarello
Jimmy Vesey -- Kevin Hayes -- Pavel Buchnevich
Vladislav Namestnikov -- Ryan Strome -- Jesper Fast
Filip Chytil -- Boo Nieves -- Connor Brickley
Brady Skjei -- Adam McQuaid
Marc Staal -- Neal Pionk
Brendan Smith -- Kevin Shattenkirk
Henrik Lundqvist
Alexandar Georgiev
Scratched:Tony DeAngelo, Fredrik Claesson
Injured:Brett Howden (MCL sprain)

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
Curtis McElhinney
Petr Mrazek
Scratched:None
Injured:Jordan Staal (upper body)

Status report

The Rangers held an optional morning skate. … Skjei returned to the ice for practice Monday after leaving the game Friday with a lower-body injury and not playing Sunday. … The Hurricanes did not hold a morning skate. … Jordan Staal practiced Monday. Brind'Amour said he is close to returning after missing 25 games.

Stat pack

Zuccarello has 22 points (seven goals, 15 assists) in his past 14 games. ... McElhinney is 4-0-0 with a 1.73 goals-against average, .946 save percentage and one shutout in his past four starts.