Hurricanes at Rangers
Time is running out for the Carolina Hurricanes as they conclude three straight on the road Monday against the New York Rangers, whose sand in the hourglass sank to the bottom long ago. Carolina is coming off a 3-2 victory over Chicago on Thursday for its third victory in five contests after a six-game slide (0-4-2), but finds itself six points behind Columbus for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
“We believe we’re going to get in, we really do,” Hurricanes coach Bill Peters told reporters recently. “That’s how we approach it. That’s how we look at it every day. We’re planning as if we’re playing beyond Game 82.” New York waved the white flag prior to the trade deadline last month and is 10 points out of the playoffs after losing 4-3 in a shootout at Florida on Saturday for its third straight setback. “In our team right now, we have some veterans, we have some first-, second-, third-year pros that are trying to put a real foot in the NHL door,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault told reporters. “Some guys are at their first strides, but they’re learning every time they go out there, and some other guys are trying to prove they are good NHL players with big roles. So everybody has something to prove, and we’re trying to prove that we can win.” New York won the first two meetings of the season by a combined 11-2, including 5-1 on Dec. 1 at Madison Square Garden in the last encounter.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FS Carolinas, MSG (New York)
ABOUT THE HURRICANES (30-27-11): Teuvo Teravainen has four goals and two assists in his last six games and leads the club with 53 points and 34 assists - both career highs. Sebastian Aho scored his team-best 24th goal Thursday - equaling his total from his rookie campaign of a season ago - and has three tallies in his last six contests. Cam Ward (19-11-4, 2.70 goals-against average, .907 save percentage), who was pulled in his last start after allowing four goals on 13 shots in a 6-2 loss at Minnesota on Tuesday, is expected back in goal after Scott Darling defeated his old team Thursday in his first start since Feb. 27.
ABOUT THE RANGERS (30-32-7): Henrik Lundqvist became the 15th goaltender in NHL history to play 800 games Saturday - the first from outside North America to do so - and is 430-272-82, 2.36, .919 for his career. Ryan Spooner recorded two assists Saturday and has two goals and 10 assists in seven games since being acquired from Boston in the Rick Nash deal. Kevin Hayes and Mika Zibanejad each scored their 20th goals of the season Saturday with Hayes reaching the milestone for the first time and Zibanejad moving within one of his career high set in 2015-16 while with Ottawa.
OVERTIME
1. New York has lost nine straight versus the Eastern Conference and is 6-15-2 overall since a 4-3 victory over Buffalo on Jan. 18.
2. Carolina is 4-for-13 on the power play over its last six games after scoring in each of the last two contests.
3. Lundqvist joins Tony Esposito (873 games with Chicago) and Martin Brodeur (1,266, New Jersey) as the only goaltenders to reach 800 contests with one team.