Hurricanes at Lightning
THE STORY: The Tampa Bay Lightning are currently outside the top eight in the Eastern Conference, but they have shown the ability to fight back. The Lightning earned their league-leading fifth victory when trailing after two periods Thursday against Montreal. Tampa Bay hopes to win more comfortably Saturday when it tries for the sweep of a three-game homestand against the Southeast Division rival Carolina Hurricanes. Both teams are in the middle of the pack scoring, struggling on the power play and near the bottom in goals against. Tampa Bay is 4-1-1 in its last six games and Carolina has won three – two in overtime – of its last four games.
TV: 5 p.m. ET; FS-Car (Carolina), SunSports (Tampa).
ABOUT THE HURRICANES (13-20-6): It’s been a rough season for Eric Staal, although the captain’s game-winning goal in overtime Thursday gave the Hurricanes a big come-from-behind win over Toronto. Staal will play the 600th game of his career Saturday against a Lightning team he has had plenty of luck against (53 points, 49 games). Jeff Skinner, who has been out the last nine games with concussion symptoms, still leads the Hurricanes in scoring with 24 points. Tuomo Ruutu, who is third on the team with 22 points, expects to play his 500th career game.
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (16-17-3): With D Victor Hedman out indefinitely after suffering an upper-body injury Tuesday, veteran Pavel Kubina moved to his place beside Eric Brewer and earned a point for the third straight game. Kubina has nine blocks, five hits and is plus-4 in the last two contests, playing more than 27 minutes in each. Vincent Lecavalier scored his fifth game-winning goal against Montreal and Steven Stamkos recorded his 23rd marker to take over the league lead through Thursday. Stamkos has seven goals in as many games.
OVERTIME
1. The Hurricanes’ 4-2 victory Nov. 1 broke a three-game losing streak to Tampa Bay.
2. Martin St. Louis has scored more goals (35) and points (72) against Carolina than any other team.
3. Carolina was tied for the league lead with seven shorthanded goals through Thursday.