Tonight at 7:00 p.m. ET, the Pittsburgh Penguins (27-11-1, 55 points) and Carolina Hurricanes (14-15-8, 36 points) hit the ice at PNC Arena in North Carolina for the third of four meetings this season. The game can be live streamed here. Pittsburgh fans can hear all of the bone-crunching action on 105.9 WXDX while Carolina fans can do the same on 99.9 The Fan.
Pittsburgh has won 12 of its last 14 games but had a seven-game winning streak snapped its last time out while Carolina enters play having gone 0-2-1 in its last three games before the holiday break. The Penguins have beaten the Hurricanes both times they've met so far this season, notching a 5-2 win on Oct. 8 in Pittsburgh and then a 3-1 win Oct. 28 in North Carolina.
The injury-ravaged Penguins were shutout 5-0 by Ottawa to snap their seven-game winning streak and entered the holiday break on a sour note despite their recent winning ways.
"Our power play hurt us," captain Sidney Crosby said per NHL.com. "We had some real good chances in the second, a 2-0 game. It didn't feel like they were getting much in the second period. We didn't capitalize on the power plays that we got, and then [Erik] Karlsson's goal in the third took a lot of momentum away from us."
Crosby leads the team with 54 points off of 20 goals and 34 assists while Evgeni Malkin (9-32-41) ranks second on the team but is sidelined with a leg injury and Chris Kunitz is third on the team with 39 points off of 20 tallies and 19 helpers.
The Hurricanes were four minutes away from a victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets before allowing back-to-back goals in a 4-3 loss on Monday and the team will hope to bounce back.
"That's a real stunner right there," Hurricanes coach Kirk Muller told NHL.com. "You're four or five minutes away from walking away and picking up two huge points. We made two mistakes in the third. We're sitting there with a few minutes left in the game, and they capitalize on two A chances."
Eric Staal leads the Hurricanes with 30 points off of nine goals and 21 assists while Jeff Skinner has 14 markers and nine helpers for 23 points and Andrej Sekera has found the twine six times and added 13 assists for 19 points.
Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury has an NHL-best 21 wins while going 21-9-1 with a 2.13 goals-against average and a .920 save percentage while Cam Ward is 5-6-5 with a 3.04 GAA and a .901 save percentage.
The Penguins look to embark on a new winning streak while the Hurricanes will hope to avoid a four-game win-less skid when the lights come up at the PNC Arena tonight in North Carolina.
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