Having ended a five-game winning run with a home defeat against Toronto, the Pittsburgh Penguins (4th in Metropolitan Division) will remain on own ice to host the Carolina Hurricanes (3rd in Metropolitan), who have just won for the first time in six contests.
The Carolina Hurricanes (11-6-5) finally snapped their season-long five-game losing streak (0-1-4) after banking a 3-2 win against the Calgary Flames at PNC Arena on Saturday. Seth Jarvis (4 goals, 9 points this year) and Martin Necas (10 goals, 24 points) gave the ‘Canes 1-0 and 2-1 leads in the first and second periods respectively before Brett Pesce (1 goal, 5 points) pocketed the winner with Carolina’s second power-play snipe of the night midway through the final third. The Hurricanes have now gone 4-for-9 with the man-advantage throughout their last two outings after posting a 0-for-20 showing in their previous six.
Goalie Antti Raanta turned aside 18 shots on Saturday to take his current performance tally to 4-2-2 for the season with a 2.47 GAA and a .901 save percentage. He has registered a 3-5-0 past total ver sus Pittsburgh with a 2.86 GAA and a .909 save percentage, while Pyotr Kochetkov (2-1-3 on the year with a 2.33 GAA and a .912 save percentage) has never faced the Penguins before. The Hurricanes, meanwhile, are netting the 5th lowest quantity of snipes per game in 2022-23 (2.68), while allowing the 8th lowest amount defensively (2.77). They are 26th in power play (16.9%; 14-for-83) and 15th in penalty kill (79.5%; 62-for-78).