Lightning at Hurricanes preview
Tampa Bay eyes seventh straight win; Carolina plays fourth of seven-game homestand
by Kurt Dusterberg / NHL.com Independent Correspondent
LIGHTNING (23-13-4) at HURRICANES (24-15-2)
5 p.m. ET; ESPN+, FS-CR, SUN, NHL.TV
The Game
The Tampa Bay Lightning will try to extend their season-best winning streak to seven games when they visit the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena on Sunday.
The Lightning are 9-2-1 in their past 12 games but defenseman Ryan McDonagh is out with an upper-body injury sustained in a 4-3 victory at the Ottawa Senators on Saturday.
The Hurricanes will play the fourth of a seven-game homestand. They are 2-4-0 in their past six games after going 6-0-1 in their previous seven. Carolina lost to the Washington Capitals 4-3 on Friday.
Players to watch
Lightning center Brayden Point has 13 points (six goals, seven assists) in his past 11 games.
Hurricanes forward Teuvo Teravainen has 15 points (one goal, 14 assists) in his past 12 games.
They said it
"We knew we hadn't played our best game yet (after two periods). Obviously going down by a goal, we knew if we got back to our principles, we would get our chances. We were just trying to set the tone early, coming out in the third and getting back to what we do well." -- Lightning defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk on trailing the Senators 3-2 in the third period Saturday
"I'd like to see us not give up quite as many odd-man rushes and grade-A chances. If we can eliminate a couple of those a game, it takes a little stress off our game. At the same time, we're certainly creating enough offense every game to win." -- Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour
Lightning projected lineup
Ondrej Palat -- Brayden Point -- Nikita Kucherov
Alex Killorn -- Anthony Cirelli -- Steven Stamkos
Pat Maroon -- Cedric Paquette -- Tyler Johnson
Yanni Gourde -- Mitchell Stephens -- Carter Verhaeghe
Victor Hedman -- Braydon Coburn
Luke Schenn -- Erik Cernak
Mikhail Sergachev -- Kevin Shattenkirk
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Curtis McElhinney
Scratched: None
Injured: Jan Rutta (lower body), Ryan McDonagh (upper body)
Hurricanes projected lineup
Nino Niederreiter -- Sebastian Aho -- Teuvo Teravainen
Andrei Svechnikov -- Jordan Staal -- Warren Foegele
Ryan Dzingel -- Erik Haula -- Martin Necas
Brock McGinn -- Lucas Wallmark -- Jordan Martinook
Jaccob Slavin -- Dougie Hamilton
Jake Gardiner -- Brett Pesce
Haydn Fleury -- Joel Edmundson
James Reimer
Petr Mrazek
Scratched: Trevor van Riemsdyk
Injured: None
Status report
Neither team held a morning skate.
Stat pack
Hedman has 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in his past six games. … Hamilton has 15 points (three goals, 12 assists) in 19 games against the Lightning.