Senators at Hurricanes
The road has been kind to the Ottawa Senators of late, but trips into the Tar Heel State have been anything but fruitful. The Senators vie for their fourth road win in five outings on Tuesday when they visit the Carolina Hurricanes in a battle of teams clinging to faint postseason aspirations.
Both clubs reside six points behind Detroit for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, with Ottawa dropping three of its last four overall (1-2-1) while Carolina has lost four of five (1-3-1). Senators forward Zack Smith extended his point streak to a career-high five games (three goals, two assists) by scoring his team's lone goal in a 2-1 setback to Dallas on Sunday. The 27-year-old also tallied in Ottawa's 4-2 win over the Hurricanes on Feb. 18 for his sixth goal and ninth point in nine contests. Carolina's Jordan Staal scored in that contest and also tallied in overtime of a 3-2 decision on Nov. 7 to send the Senators to their 12th loss in their last 14 visits to PNC Arena (2-10-2).
TV: 7 p.m. ET, RDS2, TSN5, WPCW (Ottawa), FSN Carolinas, NHL.TV
ABOUT THE SENATORS (31-29-7): Defenseman Mark Borowiecki likely will miss the remainder of the regular season after tearing the MCL in his right knee against Tampa Bay on Thursday. "It's going to be long-term," Borowiecki told the Ottawa Citizen. "They don't do surgery on MCLs. They heal up well. No long-term effects. You could probably find lots of guys in this league who have done it. I'll be fine." Fellow blue-liner Dion Phaneuf will wear the alternate "A" in the absence of Borowiecki, who had the letter on his sweater after Kyle Turris went down to injury.
ABOUT THE HURRICANES (29-26-11): Jeff Skinner, who scored in the team's first meeting with Ottawa this season, netted his team-leading 23rd goal in Carolina's 4-3 overtime loss to the Lightning on Saturday. "The best he's ever played in my time here is current, right now," Carolina coach Bill Peters told the Raleigh News & Observer on Monday. "I'm very happy where his game is." With good reason, as the 23-year-old Skinner has scored and set up a goal in two of his last three outings and dropped his plus/minus rating to minus-1 - which is vastly better than his career-worst minus-24 total of last season.
OVERTIME
1. Carolina G Cam Ward, who is mired in a three-game skid overall, is 6-0-1 in his last seven meetings versus Ottawa.
2. Senators RW Mark Stone has nine points (two goals, seven assists) in his past seven contests.
3. The Hurricanes have scored at least one power-play goal in both meetings with Ottawa this season and seven of their last 11 games overall.