Lightning at Hurricanes preview

LIGHTNING (57-13-4) at HURRICANES (40-25-7)
7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, TVAS, FS-CR, SUN, NHL.TV

The Hurricanes hold the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. They trail the Pittsburgh Penguins, who play the Nashville Predators, by two points with two games in hand.
Goalie Curtis McElhinney will start for the Hurricanes, who are 12-3-1 in their past 16 games. McElhinney is 7-2-1 with a 2.49 goals-against average, .918 save percentage and two shutouts in his past 10 starts.
The Lightning will try for their seventh win in a row. They are five wins from tying the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings for the NHL single-season record (62). Tampa Bay has clinched the Presidents' Trophy, Eastern Conference and Atlantic Division, and is 18-2-0 in its past 20 games after a 5-4 overtime win at the Washington Capitals on Wednesday.

Players to watch

Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov has 11 points (six goals, five assists) in his past six games.
Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho has 16 points (six goals, 10 assists) in his past 17 games.

They said it

"We need to find our game coming down the stretch here in these big environments. Just look at [Thursday] night. We have another team that's going to be scraping to get into the playoffs, so these are good tests for us and probably much needed." -- Lightning coach Jon Cooper
"(Tampa Bay) is an impressive team, no way around it. The good power play is the difference. Obviously, they have good players, but it's the execution. The passes are on the tape. They're in their wheelhouse every time. It's one of the best I've seen in my years around. Obviously, we don't want to take penalties." -- Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour

Lightning projected lineup

Ondrej Palat -- Steven Stamkos -- J.T. Miller
Tyler Johnson -- Brayden Point -- Nikita Kucherov
Alex Killorn -- Anthony Cirelli -- Mathieu Joseph
Adam Erne -- Cedric Paquette -- Yanni Gourde
Victor Hedman -- Mikhail Sergachev
Ryan McDonagh -- Erik Cernak
Braydon Coburn -- Jan Rutta
Louis Domingue
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Scratched:Ryan Callahan, Danick Martel, Cameron Gaunce
Injured:Dan Girardi (lower body), Anton Stralman (lower body)

Hurricanes projected lineup

Nino Niederreiter -- Sebastian Aho -- Justin Williams
Andrei Svechnikov -- Jordan Staal -- Teuvo Teravainen
Micheal Ferland -- Lucas Wallmark -- Jordan Martinook
Brock McGinn -- Greg McKegg -- Warren Foegele
Jaccob Slavin -- Dougie Hamilton
Brett Pesce -- Justin Faulk
Calvin de Haan -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Curtis McElhinney
Petr Mrazek
Scratched:Saku Maenalanen, Haydn Fleury
Injured:None

Status report

The Lightning did not hold a morning skate. ... Brind'Amour said de Haan could return after missing three games.

Stat pack

The Lightning are 20-2-0 against the Metropolitan Division. … Ferland has five points (four goals, one assist) in eight games against Tampa Bay.