The Pittsburgh Penguins and Carolina Hurricanes meet Sunday in NHL action at the PNC Arena. The Pittsburgh Penguins have won 7 straight games. The Carolina Hurricanes have won 8 of their last 9 games.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are averaging 3.5 goals per game and are scoring on 20.4 percent of their power play opportunities. Sidney Crosby leads Pittsburgh with 17 goals, Evgeni Malkin has 21 assists, and Rickard Rakell has 93 shots on goal. Defensively, the Pittsburgh Penguins are allowing 2.9 goals per game and are killing 82.4 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Tristan Jarry has allowed 53 goals on 675 shots faced, and Casey DeSmith has given up 28 goals on 333 shots.
The Carolina Hurricanes are averaging 2.8 goals per game and are scoring on 17.9 percent of their power play opportunities. Andrei Svechnikov leads Carolina with 16 goals, Sebastian Aho has 16 assists and Brent Burns has 96 shots on goal. Defensively, the Carolina Hurricanes are allowing 2.6 goals per game and are killing 80 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Pyotr Kochetkov has allowed 25 goal on 326 shots faced, and Antti Raanta has allowed 23 goals on 218 shots.
The Penguins are 6-0 in their last 6 road games and 12-2 in their last 14 overall. The Hurricanes are 36-16 in their last 52 games playing on 0 days rest and 4-0 in their last 4 overall. The under is 3-0-2 in Penguins last 5 overall. The under is 11-5 in Hurricanes last 16 overall. The Penguins are 1-4 in the last 5 meetings. The favorite is 14-6 in the last 20 meetings.
This should be a terrific game, and you can make a case for either side. The Pittsburgh Penguins have the rest advantage with the Canes playing yesterday, but the Carolina Hurricanes are at home, where they've been a buzz saw dating back to last year. The Hurricanes have also had little issue winning on the end of back to backs. At home, I'll give the edge to Carolina to win a battle of two of the hotter teams in the league.
