The Carolina Hurricanes (51-21-9, 111 points, 1st Metro) are on the road Thursday with a visit to South Florida to play against the Florida Panthers (42-31-8, 92 points, 4th Atlantic) in the final game of the regular season for both teams. Carolina defeated the Detroit Red Wings 4-1 on Tuesday snapping a three-game losing streak. Carolina owns a one-point lead over second place New Jersey at the top of the Metropolitan Division and a victory on Thursday will clinch the division title and would also clinch second place in the Eastern conference. Florida's six game winning streak was snapped on Monday when losing in overtime to Toronto 2-1. Florida currently leads the Eastern Conference Wild Card chase by one point over the New York Islanders and has clinched a postseason berth. Carolina will play without Jake Gardiner, Ondrej Kase and Max Pacioretty amongst others. Florida will play without Patric Hornqvist and Spencer Knight.
Carolina has a goals against average of just 2.53 goals per game which is second in the NHL, while at the same time Carolina is scoring an average of 3.16 goals per game which is 18th. Carolina is allowing an average of only 26.0 shots per game which is the fewest in the NHL and at the same time is taking an average of 34.9 shots per game which is third most. Carolina's penalty kill unit is successful 84.1% of the time which is second best and its power play scores 20.2% of time which is only 20th.
Sebastian Aho is the leading goal scorer for Carolina with 35 and Martin Necas is second in goals scored with 28. Brent Burns and Necas are the co-leaders in assists with 43 each. Carolina does miss the presence of Andrei Svechnikov, who is on injured reserve, and has 55 points (23 goals, 32 assists) in only 64 games which is fourth best. New Jersey has scored 50 goals on the power play in 81 games. Goalie Frederik Andersen is 20-11-1 with a 2.43 goals against average, .904 save percentage and one shutout.