Hurricanes at Islanders
Rookie Sebastian Aho is leading the way for the Carolina Hurricanes, who will try to stay in the playoff hunt when they visit the Metropolitan Division-rival New York Islanders on Saturday. Aho scored his fourth goal in two games and 10th in 15 contests on Friday as the Hurricanes edged Edmonton 2-1 for their second straight win after a five-game losing streak.
Aho, a 19-year-old Finn who was selected in the second round of the 2015 draft, recorded his first career hat trick in Tuesday's 5-1 win over Philadelphia and netted the go-ahead power-play goal early in the third period Friday. The Islanders saw their seven-game point streak (6-0-1) come to an end Friday with a 5-4 loss at Detroit as they gave up a goal with 28 seconds left in the third period. Captain John Tavares continued his hot streak with a goal and an assist, giving him 16 points in the last 10 games to push his team-leading total to 43. Thomas Greiss allowed eight tallies in his previous six games before the Red Wings scored five times on 24 shots, so backup Jean-Francois Berube may make his first start since Jan. 21 against Los Angeles.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FSN Carolinas, MSG Plus (New York)
ABOUT THE HURRICANES (23-20-7): Carolina's postseason hopes were damaged by the losing streak, but it has two games in hand on Philadelphia for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference and needs more efforts like the one it put forth on Friday. “We had to regroup over the All-Star break, and we’ve gotten off to a real good start,” goaltender Cam Ward told reporters. “Hopefully, we can continue the momentum (Saturday) in a tough conference game. The points are huge. You have to capitalize.” Leading scorer Jeff Skinner (36 points) has recorded just one point in his last eight contests while Victor Rask (32) is in the midst of an eight-game drought.
ABOUT THE ISLANDERS (22-18-9): Tavares has led the way as usual, but he is getting more help as Josh Bailey has scored three goals in four games and defenseman Nick Leddy has notched six points in his last six contests. Anders Lee is second on the team with 17 goals and added an assist Friday to push his point total to 27 – tied for third on the team. Veteran Cal Clutterbuck, who is one shy of 100 goals for his career, returned from a lower-body injury Friday but did not finish the game, and interim coach Doug Weight told reporters he would miss Saturday’s contest.
OVERTIME
1. New York LW Jason Chimera scored a goal in his 1,000th game Friday while D Dennis Seidenberg played in his 800th career contest.
2. The Hurricanes are 4-0-2 in their last six meetings with the Islanders, including a 7-4 victory on Jan. 14.
3. Islanders LW Andrew Ladd has collected three goals and an assist with a plus-2 rating in his last three contests.