Lightning at Hurricanes preview

LIGHTNING (54-23-4) at HURRICANES (35-35-11)
7 p.m. ET; FS-CR, SUN, NHL.TV

The Lightning also can clinch with a shootout win and a Boston Bruins loss against the Ottawa Senators in regulation or overtime; one point against Carolina and a Bruins loss in any fashion; or a Bruins regulation loss.
Tampa Bay, 3-4-0 in its past seven games after going 12-2-1 in its previous 15 games, leads Boston by two points for the division and conference lead; the Bruins have a game in hand.
Forward Nikita Kucherov needs one goal to match his NHL personal high of 40 goals, set last season. He became the third Lightning player to reach 100 points (39 goals, 61 assists) on Friday, joining Vincent Lecavalier (108 points) and Martin St. Louis (102), each in 2006-07.
Center Steven Stamkos is not expected to play because of a lower-body injury.
The Hurricanes, who have been eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention, have lost three straight games (0-3-0) after going 5-2-0 in their previous seven.

Players to watch

Lightning forward J.T. Miller has 17 points (10 goals, seven assists) in 18 games with Tampa Bay since being acquired in a trade with the New York Rangers on Feb. 26.
Hurricanes center Derek Ryan has eight points (two goals, six assists) in a six-game point streak.

They said it

"Is there anything else that needs to be said? Win a hockey game, win a division and that would be an unreal accomplishment." -- Lightning coach Jon Cooper
"They'll be competitive, and so will we. … We've given up too many shots and too many scoring chances. The first 20 (minutes) is going to be important for us tonight." -- Hurricanes coach Bill Peters

Lightning projected lineup

Ondrej Palat -- Brayden Point -- Nikita Kucherov
J.T. Miller -- Tyler Johnson -- Cory Conacher
Yanni Gourde -- Anthony Cirelli -- Alex Killorn
Chris Kunitz -- Cedric Paquette -- Ryan Callahan
Victor Hedman -- Anton Stralman
Ryan McDonagh -- Dan Girardi
Braydon Coburn -- Mikhail Sergachev
Louis Domingue
Peter Budaj
Scratched: Andrej Sustr, Jake Dotchin, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Slater Koekkoek
Injured: Adam Erne (lower body), Steven Stamkos (lower body)

Hurricanes projected lineup

Phillip Di Giuseppe -- Jordan Staal -- Justin Williams
Sebastian Aho -- Elias Lindholm -- Teuvo Teravainen
Jeff Skinner -- Derek Ryan -- Lee Stempniak
Joakim Nordstrom --
Nicolas Roy
-- Valentin Zykov
Jaccob Slavin -- Klas Dahlbeck
Noah Hanifin -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Haydn Fleury -- Roland McKeown
Cam Ward
Scott Darling
Scratched: None
Injured: Brock McGinn (undisclosed), Justin Faulk (upper body), Victor Rask (shoulder), Brett Pesce (shoulder)

Status report

Vasilevskiy is not expected to dress after playing the first half of a back-to-back Friday. ... Roy will make his NHL debut after he was called up from Charlotte of the American Hockey League on Saturday.

Stat pack

Hedman has 13 points (six goals, seven assists) in his past 12 games. ... Aho has 14 points (six points, eight assists) in his past 14 games.