The Carolina Hurricanes and Tampa Bay Lightning meet Thursday in NHL action at the Amalie Arena. The Carolina Hurricanes look for a win after splitting their last 6 games. The Tampa Bay Lightning look to build on their 3-game winning streak.

The Carolina Hurricanes are averaging 3.11 goals per game and are scoring on 17.1 percent of their power play opportunities. Andrei Svechnikov leads Carolina with 8 goals, Martin Necas has 8 assists and Brent Burns has 34 shots on goal. Defensively, the Carolina Hurricanes are allowing 2.78 goals per game and are killing 79.4 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Frederik Andersen has allowed 16 goal on 154 shots faced, and Antti Raanta has allowed 7 goals on 80 shots.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are averaging 3.2 goals per game and are scoring on 21.4 percent of their power play opportunities. Steven Stamkos leads Tampa Bay with 7 goals, Nikita Kucherov has 11 assists and Brayden Point has 29 shots on goal. Defensively, the Tampa Bay Lightning are allowing 3.1 goals per game and are killing 82.4 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Andrei Vasilevskiy has given up 20 goals on 204 shots faced, and Brian Elliott has allowed 10 goals on 100 shots.

The Hurricanes are 7-2 in their last 9 games playing on 2 days rest and 23-9 in their last 32 Thursday games. The Lightning are 37-15 in their last 52 home games and 5-1 in their last 6 overall. The under is 11-5-1 in Hurricanes last 17 overall. The over is 3-1-1 in Lightning last 5 overall. The Hurricanes are 4-14 in the last 18 meetings in Tampa Bay and 17-35 in the last 52 meetings. The favorite is 4-1 in the last 5 meetings.

The Carolina Hurricanes in the underdog role isn’t something you often see, so I can understand why you’d consider it here. However, the Tampa Bay Lightning have settled in defensively over the last week, and they’ve pretty much owned the Canes over the years. Also, you don’t get the Lightning and these cheap prices, especially at home. I’ll gladly lay the reasonable juice with the Lightning.