Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Carolina Hurricanes: ROUND 2, GAME 5
Time: 6:30 PM Eastern Time
Location: PNC Arena
Broadcast/Streaming: NBCSN, TVAS, SN
Opponent SBNation Site: Canes Country
The Tampa Bay Lightning are on a roll and have a chance to put the Carolina Hurricanes away on the road. This is a chance to stop the Canes from gaining a foothold and changing the tide of the series. We’re calling it the Rally in Raleigh.
The Lightning, after getting David Savard back from injury, are pretty much completely healthy and are running a normal lineup. There might get some surprise game-time decisions after morning skate, but with the team taking two full days off (including travel), they should be more rejuvenated than before. So far there’s been no reason anything will affect the lineup.
As for the Canes, they’re dealing with a few injuries up front. Their second/third line center Vincent Trocheck is a game-time decision, along with wingers Nino Niederreiter and Warren Foegele. If none of them are ready to go, perhaps the team will turn to rookie prospect Ryan Suzuki. Max McCormick and Drew Shore are also there as veteran options from the extras.
The defense is pretty much intact, but it’ll be interesting to see if the Canes go back to Alex Nedeljkovic at home in net or stick to Petr Mrazec, who has won them their only win of the series.
Rod Brind’Amour has been very coy with his lineup decisions, leaving them until late after warm ups before confirming the group. I’d guess we’ll see what the Lightning have to face sometime between 6:15 and 6:30 pm.
Tampa Bay Lightning Lines
Forwards
Ondrej Palat – Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov
Alex Killorn – Anthony Cirelli – Steven Stamkos
Barclay Goodrow – Yanni Gourde – Blake Coleman
Pat Maroon – Tyler Johnson – Ross Colton
Defense
Victor Hedman – Jan Rutta
Ryan McDonagh – Erik Cernak
Mikhail Sergachev – David Savard
Goalies
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Curtis McElhinney
Carolina Hurricanes Lines
Forwards
Andrei Svechnikov – Sebastian Aho – Teuvo Teravainen
Martin Necas – Jordan Staal – Warren Foegele (?)
Brock McGinn – Jordan Martinook – Jesper Fast
Cedric Paquette – Taylor Lorentz – Morgan Geekie
Vincent Trocheck (?) – Nino Niederreiter (?)
Defense
Jaccob Slavin – Dougie Hamilton
Jake Bean – Brett Pesce
Brady Skjei – Jani Hakanpaa
Goalies
Petr Mrazek
Alex Nedeljkovic
