Goaltender Cam Ward will start for the Carolina Hurricanes, who are four points behind the Boston Bruins for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the Eastern Conference. The Hurricanes have one game in hand on the Bruins but have six fewer regulation/overtime wins. Carolina has earned points in a Hurricanes record 13 straight games (9-0-4) to surge back into the playoff picture. "We've just got to worry about tonight and find a way to get off to a better start than our last two games at home, so that's our focus the first 10 minutes," coach Bill Peters said. The Hurricanes have relied heavily on the line of Jeff Skinner, Derek Ryan and Lee Stempniak recently, but Peters said he plans to juggle lines to get the rest of his forwards producing. "Everything else has been a mixed bag," Peters said. "We've had different line combinations other than the Ryan line, and that's due to the fact that somebody's not going. So if somebody's got some extra jump and he looks like he's going to have a night, we're going to bump him up." The Hurricanes are averaging 3.61 goals per game during the 13-game point streak.
