Goalie Curtis McElhinney will start for the Hurricanes, who are tied in points with the Columbus Blue Jackets for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoff from the East. Carolina lost at Columbus 3-0 on Friday. The Hurricanes are four points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for third place in the Metropolitan Division. The Hurricanes are 2-2-1 after a five-game winning streak. Sabres captain Jack Eichel will return to the lineup after serving a two-game suspension for an illegal hit to the head against Colorado Avalanche forward Carl Soderberg on March 9. The Sabres have been shut out three straight games and have lost six in a row. Buffalo is 2-10-2 in its past 14 games and has fallen 14 points behind the Blue Jackets for the second wild card from the East.
Players to watch
Sabres center Jack Eichel has 10 points (six goals, four assists) in 11 games against the Hurricanes. Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho has 15 points (six goals, nine assists) in his past 15 games.
They said it
"We need a goal. We'd like to get a result with that too. I think we're still at times turning away opportunities to get pucks to the net. We've got to really simplify our game and throw everything to the net and get people going there and getting dirty and hungry to score a goal." -- Sabres coach Phil Housley "Hopefully we will learn from that start and continue to build on the game we built in the second and third (period). The beauty is we've got one (Saturday). We've got two points to go get and we will focus on that." -- Hurricanes forward Jordan Staal on giving up two goals in the first 5:54 against Columbus
Neither team held a morning skate. Bogosian practiced on Friday after missing a 5-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday with an upper-body injury. Scandella did not practice and is day-to-day, but he made the trip to Raleigh.
Stat pack
Skinner leads the Sabres with 36 goals but has not scored in his past 13 games. Eichel had six goals in seven games prior to his suspension. ... Staal needs one point for 500 in the NHL (212 goals, 287 assists in 881 games). ... McElhinney is 10-3-1 in his past 14 starts.
