Two of the NHL’s perennial regular-season juggernauts are set to clash on Friday, and the Carolina Hurricanes will be searching for consistency when they head to Winnipeg to battle the Jets.
The Hurricanes have seen mixed results since their four-game win streak finished on Nov. 9, carrying a 2-1-2 record over their past five games.
Their most recent contest was 4-3 shootout loss to the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday.
The Hurricanes erased a two-goal deficit as Sebastian Aho tacked on his eighth goal of the season before Jackson Blake buried his second of the night. It wasn’t enough in the end as the Wild finished off Carolina in the shootout to take the two points.
“Obviously, you’re never really pumped about losing, right? But I think there’s a lot of stuff we can build from this game,” Blake told reporters after his second-career two-goal effort. “One thing that this team does is we compete. … We give ourselves a chance, but we just have to find a way not to give them those two freebies.”
Carolina will be hoping to rewrite their early-game troubles after allowing the opening goal in seven of their past 10 outings.
On the Jets’ side of things, their locker room received a big boost on Wednesday when they announced the contract extension of captain Adam Lowry.
Lowry, who has served as team captain since the beginning of the 2023-24 season, put pen to paper on a five-year, $25 million contract.
On the ice, the Jets have had minimal troubles of late, taking three of their past four contests (3-1-0), with their most recent victory being a 5-2 home win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday.
Mark Scheifele was impressive in his franchise record-setting 898th game in a Jets sweater. He continued to build his case to be on Canada’s Olympic team with a three-assist performance.
“That’s special,” Jets coach Scott Arniel said of Scheifele breaking the franchise record for games played. “… He’s an elite athlete. He takes a lot of pride in his body so that he can play close to 82 games every year. Just the consistency.”
Scheifele’s three-point outing marked his ninth multi-point game through 19 appearances to start the season. He leads Winnipeg with 27 points (11 goals, 16 assists).
Alongside Scheifele, defenseman Josh Morrissey has caught fire of late. After picking up a goal and an assist on Tuesday, he brought his point streak up to six games (three goals, seven assists).
Kyle Connor and Neal Pionk both followed suit with a goal and an assist, while Nino Niederreiter picked up two assists of his own.
Jets superstar netminder Connor Hellebuyck is expected to be between the pipes on Friday after Eric Comrie made 20 saves in a rare start on Tuesday.
Hellebuyck, last season’s Hart Memorial trophy winner, will be searching for his form after allowing at least three goals in six of his past eight starts (4-4-0).
Winnipeg has taken each of the previous three home meetings with the Hurricanes, while Carolina has won six of the previous 10 matchups overall.
–Field Level Media
