Devils at Hurricanes
The New Jersey Devils are making a spirited surge toward the postseason, but they could be without some key cogs heading into Saturday's road game versus the Carolina Hurricanes. Veteran Patrik Elias was driven into the stanchion at neutral ice by Washington rookie Tom Wilson in the first period on Friday, while Adam Henrique exited in the second session with an undisclosed injury. Despite missing some much-needed firepower, the Devils had just enough in the tank to post a 2-1 victory and improve to 3-0-3 in their last six games.
New Jersey also received some help on the out-of-town scoreboard as Columbus yielded a goal late in the third period and dropped a 4-3 decision to Chicago. The Devils reside three points behind the Blue Jackets in the race for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Carolina has been playing well of late, posting a 3-0-2 mark in its last five games to sit six points behind Columbus.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, MSG Plus2 (New Jersey), FSN (Carolina)
ABOUT THE DEVILS (32-28-16): Ryan Carter saw an increase in playing time due to the team's many injuries - and the fourth-liner produced by scoring the go-ahead goal with 4:54 remaining in the third period on Friday. "In the third (period), there was just a lot of heavy breathing and listening because we're playing different positions," Carter said of the team's many injuries. "We had three centers go down, so guys were playing positions that were a little foreign to them."
ABOUT THE HURRICANES (34-32-11): Jeff Skinner saw his six-game point streak come to an end in Carolina's 4-1 win over Dallas on Thursday. The former Calder Trophy recipient collected four goals and three assists in that stretch and has tallied eight times in 13 career meetings with New Jersey. Captain Eric Staal has scored in each of his last two games and sits two assists shy of 400 in his career.
OVERTIME
1. New Jersey LW Tuomo Ruutu scored on Friday and also burned his former team in the Devils' 5-4 win over Carolina on March 8.
2. The Hurricanes have scored three power-play goals in their last two games and have tallied at least once with the man advantage in seven of nine contests.
3. New Jersey has won two of the three meetings between the Metropolitan Division rivals this season.