Rangers at Hurricanes preview

RANGERS (31-24-4) at HURRICANES (34-21-4)
7 p.m. ET; FS-CR, MSG2, NHL.TV

Rookie goalie Igor Shesterkin will start for the Rangers, who are 5-1-0 in the past six games and have won six in a row on the road. The Rangers are 3-0-0 against the Hurricanes this season, all with Henrik Lundqvist in goal, and 30-6-0 against Carolina since Feb. 22, 2011. They are six points behind the Hurricanes and New York Islanders for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
Sebastian Aho will try to extend his point streak to 11 games for Carolina. Aho has 16 points (10 goals, six assists) during the streak and at least one goal in eight of his past nine games.
The Hurricanes are 7-3-1 in their past 11 games.

Players to watch

Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad has 19 points (eight goals, 11 assists) in his past 12 games.
Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov has five goals and five assists during an eight-game point streak.

They said it

"I think it's part of the good stress. This is fun. We're in the hunt right now and we know that every game right now is just as important as the last one. The three wins (against Carolina), those were tight games. We know how hard they play. We know it's not going to be easy." -- Rangers forward Brett Howden
"Two or three of (our losses to the Rangers) might have been our best games. It's pretty obvious the (Rangers) goaltending was phenomenal. We played pretty good against them, but I think they're even better now up front. They're heavy and quick and they've got some dynamic players." -- Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour

Rangers projected lineup

Chris Kreider -- Mika Zibanejad -- Pavel Buchnevich
Artemi Panarin -- Ryan Strome -- Jesper Fast
Phillip Di Giuseppe -- Filip Chytil -- Kaapo Kakko
Brendan Lemieux -- Brett Howden -- Julien Gauthier
Brady Skjei -- Jacob Trouba
Tony DeAngelo -- Marc Staal
Ryan Lindgren -- Adam Fox
Igor Shesterkin
Alexandar Georgiev
Scratched:Henrik Lundqvist, Brendan Smith, Greg McKegg
Injured:Micheal Haley (core muscle)

Hurricanes projected lineup

Andrei Svechnikov -- Sebastian Aho -- Teuvo Teravainen
Warren Foegele -- Jordan Staal -- Justin Williams
Nino Niederreiter -- Erik Haula -- Martin Necas
Ryan Dzingel -- Lucas Wallmark -- Brock McGinn
Jaccob Slavin -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Jake Gardiner -- Brett Pesce
Haydn Fleury -- Joel Edmundson
Petr Mrazek
James Reimer
Scratched:None
Injured:Dougie Hamilton (fractured leg), Jordan Martinook (upper body)

Status report

Gauthier played 7:18 in his Rangers debut, a 6-3 win at the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday. He was acquired from Carolina for defenseman prospect
Joey Keane
on Tuesday. … Brind'Amour said Martinook would return to the lineup "soon, for sure" but cautioned that the forward has had just one practice after missing six games.

Stat pack

Panarin has three goals and five assists during a seven-game point streak. He needs one point for 400 in the NHL. Strome has three goals and four assists during a six-game point streak. Kreider has 14 points (eight goals, six assists) in his past 11 games. … McGinn will play in his 300th NHL game. The Hurricanes are 6-10-1 against the Metropolitan Division.