Hot Hurricanes open back half of schedule with Penguins

The Carolina Hurricanes are halfway through their schedule and there are parts that are looking good.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have lots to be encouraged about, too, as they reach the halfway juncture of their schedule Saturday against the Hurricanes at Raleigh, N.C.

"We know we've got a few more levels we got to get to, but right now we're killing it," Hurricanes forward Seth Jarvis said.

The Hurricanes are 23-13-5, riding a seven-game points streak with wins in six of those games.

"We got to keep forging ahead," coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "There's a lot of season left. We have to just focus on trying to do it right every night."

Brind'Amour said the good stretches extend longer than the past couple of weeks even though the positive results just started pouring in.

"It started when our goalies started playing real well and started settling everything down," he said.

That situation might not be so settled for this weekend. Goalie Pyotr Kochetkov left Thursday night's victory against visiting Anaheim in the second period with an upper-body injury. Antti Raanta was summoned to finish the game.

"Raanta came in and did an unbelievable job," Jarvis said. "It's nice to know that we have two guys."

Brind'Amour said it's clear that the Hurricanes will need Raanta to be up to form.

"You're going to have injuries," the coach said. "Looks like we're going to have another one we're going to have to deal with. It's just part of it."

Raanta has been a valuable contributor, often as a backup. He is 8-5-2 with a 3.27 goals-against average and .862 save percentage.

"It never changes, you always do your job in practice and to be prepared to play," Raanta said. "Come and get the work in and get ready for Saturday."

The Penguins overcame a pair of two-goal deficits in what became an overtime loss to Vancouver on Thursday night. Still, Pittsburgh has managed points in 11 of its past 14 games (9-3-2).

Former Carolina goalie Alex Nedeljkovic started for the Penguins on Thursday night, but was pulled from the game after one period.

"I thought it was tough to assess Ned's game because I thought the goals were difficult saves," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "We made the decision to switch goalies mainly because we were trying to create a spark because we didn't think our team had the energy that we needed."

The Penguins also might have lineup adjustments Saturday. Winger Reilly Smith departed the most recent game with an upper-body injury suffered in the first period.

Carolina has at least one power-play goal in eight consecutive games. The Penguins were 0-for-4 on their power plays in the Vancouver game.

"I didn't think they were as sharp as they've been most recently, and we just didn't execute as well," Sullivan said. "Our hope is that we would be more impactful there."

This will be the third of four meetings between the Penguins and Hurricanes.

Carolina won 4-2 at home in mid-November with Jarvis supplying two goals, and the Penguins won last month's rematch with a 2-1 shootout victory.

- Field Level Media