Tonight at 9:00 p.m. ET, the Carolina Hurricanes (4-3-3) and Colorado Avalanche (8-1-0) faceoff live from the Pepsi Center in Colorado. The game can be live streamed here. Carolina fans can hear all of the hard-hitting action on the radio on 99.9 FM while Colorado fans can do the same on KRWZ-AM 950.
Colorado enters play with the best record in the NHL while it also has the second-most amount of points with 16 as it sits atop the Central Division while Carolina enters play in second place in the Metropolitan Division, three points shy of the division leading Pittsburgh Penguins. This will be the first of two meetings between these teams this season.
Colorado has had some stellar goaltending this season en route to its surprising start as Semyon Varlamov is 5-1-0 with a 1.68 GAA and .950 save percentage while Jean-Sebastien Giguere has yet to lose, posting a 3-0-0 record along with a dazzling 0.67 GAA and a .981 save percentage.
Meanwhile, Carolina took a rough hit in the crease when Cam Ward (2-2-3) went down with a lower-body injury against the Minnesota Wild Thursday night and will not be back for three-to-four weeks. Ward had a 2.81 GAA and a .912 save percentage at the time of the injury. Justin Peters (0-1-0) took over for Ward in his first NHL start since last April and was handed the loss.
The Avalanche, which dropped just one game of their opening nine, notched a statement victory with a 1-0 win over the Penguins Monday where Giguere picked up his second shutout of the season.
"It's not very often we're going to win in Pittsburgh [when] they had seven power plays. They are probably one of the best in the league, and they were moving the puck really well," first-year coach Patrick Roy said. "Your goalie needs to be your best player in every situation, and [Giguere] was our best player."
Matt Duchene has led the Avalanche's offense with nine points off of a team-high six goals and three assists while P.A. Parenteau has three goals and four assists for seven points and rookie Nathan MacKinnon also has seven points on one tally and a team-high six helpers.
Carolina closes out a four game road trip where it has gone 2-1-0 with its second game in as many nights following a 3-1 loss to the Wild Thursday night that saw Ward get injured and leave the game.
"Don't like to see that with anybody," defenseman Justin Faulk said via NHL.com on the injury. "But we trust [Peters] too. We're confident in any goalie we put in there."
Peters allowed two goals on the first two shots he faced Thursday night and will look to bounce back.
The Hurricanes have been paced by Jeff Skinner (3-6-9) and captain Eric Staal (3-5-8) thus far this season.
The Hurricanes look to end their road trip on the right foot without their starting goaltender while the Avalanche look to continue to dominate through the early parts of this season when the puck drops in Colorado tonight.
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