Flyers at Hurricanes preview

FLYERS (35-25-11) at HURRICANES (30-29-11)
7 p.m. ET; NBCSP, FS-CR, NHL.TV

The Flyers have lost two in a row and are 1-6-1 in their past eight games. They are tied with the Columbus Blue Jackets (71 points), who hold the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
Goaltender Alex Lyon is expected to start for the Flyers, who are 18-12-5 on the road.
Cam Ward will start for the Hurricanes, who trail the New Jersey Devils by nine points for the second wild card from the East. Carolina is 1-4-0 in its past five games and has been outscored 20-12 in the past four.

Players to watch

Flyers forward Claude Giroux has an eight-game point streak (four goals, five assists) and a three-game goal streak.
Hurricanes forward Teuvo Teravainen has 11 points (eight goals, three assists) in the past 11 games.

They said it

"The real, honest truth is 11 games to go, it's an even race. There's eight spots to be had and we're right there. I told our players after [the game], I'll take that challenge and I'll happily take that on with our group." - Flyers coach Dave Hakstol after Philadelphia's 5-3 loss to the Blue Jackets on Thursday.
"We have to make (the Flyers) defend, we have to make sure they spend time in their own zone. They are dangerous off the rush (but) we know how to play against them. They have lots of zone time typically against everybody in the League." -Hurricanes coach Bill Peters

Flyers projected lineup

Claude Giroux -- Sean Couturier -- Travis Konecny
Oskar Lindblom -- Nolan Patrick -- Jakub Voracek
Michael Raffl -- Valtteri Filppula -- Wayne Simmonds
Jori Lehtera -- Scott Laughton -- Matt Read
Ivan Provorov -- Shayne Gostisbehere
Travis Sanheim -- Andrew MacDonald
Brandon Manning -- Radko Gudas
Alex Lyon
Petr Mrazek
Scratched: Jordan Weal, Dale Weise, Taylor Leier
Injured: Brian Elliott (lower body), Michal Neuvirth (lower body), Johnny Oduya (upper body), Robert Hagg (lower body)

Hurricanes projected lineup

Sebastian Aho -- Jordan Staal -- Teuvo Teravainen
Brock McGinn -- Elias Lindholm -- Justin Williams
Jeff Skinner -- Victor Rask -- Phillip Di Giuseppe
Joakim Nordstrom -- Derek Ryan -- Lee Stempniak
Jaccob Slavin -- Brett Pesce
Haydn Fleury -- Justin Faulk
Noah Hanifin -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Cam Ward
Scott Darling
Scratched: Klas Dahlbeck
Injured:None

Status report

Goaltender Petr Mrazek was among six Flyers who skated Saturday morning. The Hurricanes will use the same lineup from their 6-4 loss to the Boston Bruins on Tuesday.

Stat pack

The Flyers have scored two goals or fewer in seven of the past nine games. Simmonds has 12 goals in 26 games against the Hurricanes. ... Williams has seven points (five goals, two assists) in the past seven games …. The Hurricanes are the least penalized team in the NHL (6.3 minutes per game).