Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – Over the years, the Buffalo Sabres have had all sorts of problems playing the Carolina Hurricanes. It doesn’t help the Sabres have lost 5-of-6 at home, and dropped both games in Raleigh this year.
Overall, Carolina is 16-2-0 against the Sabres in their last 18 games.
What will help is Carolina had their four-game winning streak broken Saturday night at home against the Dallas Stars, meaning this is a back-to-back situation for the Hurricanes.
Carolina has only scored two goals in its last two games, and their leading scorer, Sebastian Aho, has both of them.
This season, Aho has 22 goals and 39 assists for 61 points in 54 games.
In his two games against Buffalo this year, Aho has two goals and two assists for four points. He’s been one of the worst Sabres killers they’ve seen, as in his career against Buffalo the 26-year-old has 15 goals and 13 assists for 28 points in 18 games.
Martin Necas and Teuvo Teravainen have also been point per-game players in their careers against the Sabres.
The Hurricanes are 9-3-0 in their last 12 games, and they’re without both their top goalies.
Young netminder Pyotr Kochetkov has been great playing in their place. The 24-year-old is 15-10-3 this season with a 2.36 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage.
He played Saturday night, so we may not see him in Buffalo. He’s started 7-of-9 games giving up just 11 goals.
Sabres head coach Don Granato was waiting to see if Owen Power would get clearance from the team doctor to play on Sunday. Erik Johnson is back from being sick, while Kale Clague is out.
If Power does play, Clague will have to go back to the Rochester Americans.
Buffalo is 4-2-0 in its last six games, but three of those wins have come on the road.
Tage Thompson has been at the top of his game, earning many Grade-A opportunities for himself. However, the puck isn’t going in the net. He has four points in four games, but just one goal in seven games and two goals in 15 contests.
In that past two seasons, Thompson's shooting percentage has been 15.9% and 15%. This year, it’s just 9.7%. If he continues to play like he is, you would think luck would start coming into play for him, which it hasn’t so far.
There is a great chance for this game to be a low-scoring contest.
Since Jan. 1, Carolina is No. 1 in the NHL with a goals-against average of 2.10. The Sabres are No. 4 at 2.16.
One of the reasons is both teams have been very good at penalty killing in that timeframe. The Canes are tops in the NHL at 88.7%, while the Sabres are fifth at 84.5%.
Buffalo has also played better hockey since Jan. 1, as they’re 14th in the league with a points percentage of .579. Overall, they’re 25th with a points percentage of .491.
That has the Sabres pretty much out of the playoff race, because they’re 11 points back of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Buffalo still has five teams to leapfrog to get in.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has played four-straight games, and 14 of the last 16 games. He’s only given up three goals in his last two games.
Join Brian Koziol for pregame coverage on WGR starting at 5 p.m. EST when you’ll hear from Granato, Thompson and Peyton Krebs.
