3 Keys: Lightning at Hurricanes, Game 5 of second round

No. 3 Lightning at No. 1 Hurricanes
6:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN, TVAS
Tampa Bay leads the best-of-7 series, 3-1

The Carolina Hurricanes have questions about injured players and their starting goalie before getting a chance to answer the bell and keep their season alive in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Second Round against the Tampa Bay Lightning at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Tuesday.
Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour wouldn't announce who would be the starting goalie.
Petr Mrazek started Games 3 and 4 at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida. He made 35 saves in a 3-2 overtime win in Game 3, but gave up six goals on 26 shots in a 6-4 loss in Game 4.
Alex Nedeljkovic started Games 1 and 2, each a 2-1 loss. He allowed four goals on 45 shots.
"I think I'll let you guys (the media) marinate on the goalie," Brind'Amour said. "It'll add a little excitement to the day. It can go either way."
Center Vincent Trocheck and forward Nino Niederreiter will skate in warmups and are "hopeful" to return to the Carolina lineup, Brind'Amour said.
Trocheck missed the past two games with a lower-body injury sustained in Game 2. Niederreiter hasn't played in the series because of an upper-body injury sustained in practice before Game 1.
Forward Warren Foegele is 50/50 to play, Brind'Amour said. He played in Game 4 on Saturday despite an upper-body injury sustained during Game 3.
"Everyone is going to go in the warmup and we'll see where we stack up," Brind'Amour said.
The Lightning will advance past the second round for the second straight season with a win. They won Game 1 and Game 2 on the road and are 4-1 away from home in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
"We go back into their barn and we're going to approach it the same way we did the first two games," Tampa Bay defenseman Victor Hedman said. "These are the games that you love to play. Clinching games are always fun and we have a chance to do that."
Teams that lead a best-of-7 series 3-1 are 294-30 (.907) winning the series, including 3-1 this season.
Here are 3 keys to Game 5.

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1. Carolina prefers 5-on-5

The Hurricanes and Lightning are tied 6-6 in 5-on-5 goals in the series. The difference is Tampa Bay has outscored Carolina 6-3 on the power play. The Lightning have been on the man-advantage 14 times and the Hurricanes 11.
Carolina believes if it can keep it a 5-on-5 game, it can play the way it wants to against Tampa Bay, improving its chance to win.
"We've been good 5-on-5," forward Jordan Martinook said. "We've had a lot of chances. We've had zone time. … It's no secret that we need to try and stay out of the box and be more disciplined. We can tweak some things on our penalty kill, but our 5-on-5 game has been pretty solid."

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2. Lightning under pressure

The Lightning know how these situations go: The team facing elimination will come out with energy, looking to hit, play fast and score early.
It looked like they were prepared for just that in Game 5 against the Florida Panthers in the first round, when forward Ross Colton gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead 53 seconds into the game.
But the Panthers kept coming and the pressure was intense. The Lightning put them on the power play three times in the first period. They killed them off, but finally by the second Florida was wearing them out, leading to a 4-1 win that extended the series to Game 6.
"We've got to be smart and that means being smart with the puck," Hedman said. "They really thrive on turnovers and if we turn the puck over it's going to be a long night for us. Just trust our game plan, trust the skill and knowledge we have in our group, and go out there and execute."

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3. Hurricanes must produce on power play

Carolina defenseman Dougie Hamilton said he noticed Tampa Bay was more aggressive on its two penalty kills in Game 4. It was successful on each and didn't allow a shot on goal.
The Hurricanes need better zone entries and puck control on the power play in Game 5. They have to be able to better use their power plays to their advantage, especially considering the Lightning's power play is so dangerous, going 3-for-6 in Game 4 and 6-for-14 in the series.
"They came with a lot more pressure, we have to be ready for it," Hamilton said. "It's a long series, they're going to change things. We have to adapt and we have to change things and make them adapt."

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Hurricanes projected lineup

Andrei Svechnikov -- Sebastian Aho -- Teuvo Teravainen
Brock McGinn -- Jordan Staal -- Jesper Fast
Nino Niederreiter -- Jordan Martinook -- Martin Necas
Cedric Paquette -- Steven Lorentz -- Morgan Geekie
Jaccob Slavin -- Dougie Hamilton
Jake Bean -- Brett Pesce
Brady Skjei -- Jani Hakanpää
Alex Nedeljkovic
Petr Mrazek
Scratched: Max Lajoie, Max McCormick, Jake Gardiner, Drew Shore, Ryan Suzuki, Roland McKeown, James Reimer
Injured: Vincent Trocheck (lower body), Warren Foegele (upper body)

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Lightning projected lineup

Ondrej Palat -- Brayden Point -- Nikita Kucherov
Alex Killorn -- Anthony Cirelli -- Steven Stamkos
Barclay Goodrow -- Yanni Gourde -- Blake Coleman
Ross Colton -- Tyler Johnson -- Pat Maroon
Victor Hedman -- Jan Rutta
Ryan McDonagh -- Erik Cernak
Mikhail Sergachev -- David Savard
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Curtis McElhinney
Scratched:Cal Foote, Mitchell Stephens, Gemel Smith , Christopher Gibson, Spencer Martin , Fredrik Claesson, Ben Thomas, Alex Barré-Boulet, Daniel Walcott, Andreas Borgman , Taylor Raddysh , Boris Katchouk, Mathieu Joseph, Luke Schenn
Injured:None

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Status report

Neither team held a morning skate Tuesday. … Niederreiter practiced Monday for the first time since his injury.