Tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Carolina Hurricanes (15-25-5, 35 points) and Toronto Maple Leafs (22-21-3, 47 points) face-off for the second of three meetings this season live from the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. The game can be live streamed here. Carolia fans can hear all of the action on 99.9 The Fan while Toronto fans can do the same on TSN 1050.
Carolina has won two of its last three games entering tonight while Toronto is in the midst of a four-game skid after an 0-4 road trip and returns home for one game.
The first time these two teams met, the Hurricanes topped the Maple Leafs 4-1 on Dec. 18.
Toronto is seven points out of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference enterig play while Carolina owns the second-worst record in the conference.
The Hurricanes are coming off of a 3-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators and have had strong penalty killing as of late and have had some tremendous penalty killing, not allowing a power play goal in 16 games as the team begins to get healthy.
"You never want to use injuries as an excuse, but we had a tough time getting healthy at the beginning of the year," captain Eric Staal said via NHL.com. "You get in a hole and it's hard to get out. Now we are starting to feel confident in our roles and we're starting to see some better play and some offense."
Staal (13 goals, 13 assists) and Justin Faulk (eight tallies, 18 helpers) are tied for the Carolina lead with 26 points apiece. Jiri Tlusty is second behind Staal in markers with 11 and has 17 points on the campaign.
The Maple Leafs are coming off of a 3-0 defeat at the hands of the St. Louis Blues to complete an 0-4 road trip that saw the team notch just one goal in the four matches.
"We have to continue to shoot the puck," James van Riemsdyk told NHL.com. "We have to continue to go to the net where we are getting lots of chances and just bear down when we get the chances. We are scoring well below our average right now, so you would have to believe it will even itself out at some point."
Van Riemsdyk is second on Toronto with 40 points off of 19 goals and 21 assists. Phil Kessel paces the Maple Leafs with 43 points off of 19 markers and 24 helpers while Tyler Bozak has found the back of the net 14 times and added 18 assists for 32 points.
In net, Toronto is slated to turn to Jonathan Bernier and he is 16-3-3 with a 2.70 goals-against average and a .915 save percentage.
Carolina, meanwhile, is set to turn to Anton Khudobin and he is 4-8-2 with a 2.41 GAA and a .912 save percentage.
The Hurricanes look to continue their strong play as of late while the Maple Leafs hope to snap a four-game skid when the puck drops live tonight from the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.
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