Minnesota vs St. Cloud St.
6:30 PM at Scheels Arena, Fargo ND
DI Men’s Hockey Quarterfinals
Watch on: ESPNU and TSN+

Leafs prospects in action today are Matt Knies and Mike Koster with Minnesota and Veeti Miettinen with St. Cloud. This is a single elimination game, with the winner going to the Frozen Four in early April.

Scores are available here:  https://www.ncaa.com/game/6131277

Toronto Maple Leafs @ Carolina Hurricanes
07:00 PM at PNC Arena
Watch on: CBC, SNO, SNW, BSSO

The Leafs last game was an away game on March 23 against the Florida Panthers, which Toronto won by a score of 6-2. The Leafs have a record of 43-19-9 so far.

The Carolina Hurricanes last played at home on March 23 against the New York Rangers. The Hurricanes lost by a score of 2-1, and their current league record is 46-16-8.

Them

The Leafs just played Carolina, so there’s not much new to say about them. They are the best team in the NHL at controlling the puck and limiting zone exits. They are very hard to generate offence against, and very difficult to defend, but they are very, very weak at shooting and finishing skill and/or luck.

Lines

Chip Alexander via Daily Faceoff

Teuvo Teravainen - Sebastian Aho - Martin Necas
Seth Jarvis - Jesperi Kotkaniemi - Stefan Noesen
Jordan Martinook - Jordan Staal - Jesper Fast
Jack Drury - Derek Stepan - Jesse Puljujarvi

Jaccob Slavin - Brent Burns
Brady Skjei - Brett Pesce
Shayne Gostisbehere - Jalen Chatfield

Pyotr Kochetkov - starter
Frederik Andersen

Us

I expect the Leafs to stick with the same forward lines as the last game, and pick seven defenders out of a hat and randomly assign them pairings. That’s what I did below. Stay tuned at game time for the actual defender arrangement.

Lines

Calle Järnkrok - Auston Matthews - Mitch Marner
Michael Bunting - John Tavares - William Nylander
Alex Kerfoot - Noel Acciari - Sam Lafferty
Zach Aston-Reese - David Kämpf

Morgan Rielly - Luke Schenn
Jake McCabe - TJ Brodie
Mark Giordano - Timothy Liljegren
Justin Holl

Matt Murray - starter
Joe Woll

The Game

Carolina have clinched their playoff spot, and cannot take the conference title, the best they can do is remain in first in the Metro, which seems very probable. The Leafs are very close to clinching a playoff spot and are now five points ahead of Tampa with two games in hand. It’s not impossible to overcome five points in nine games played, but it requires some assistance from the team you’re chasing.

The Leafs likely should continue their program of rotation and rest, and firm up a lineup once Ryan O’Reilly is back. That is probably going to be sometime very shortly after the Leafs return home on Monday.

That’s today’s job, so Go Leafs Go!