Berkshire Bank Hockey Night In New England: Projected Bruins-Hurricanes Game 5 Lines, Pairings

The Boston Bruins have a chance to call it a series Wednesday afternoon in Toronto.

Boston currently holds a 3-1 lead in its best-of-seven, first-round Stanley Cup Playoff series with the Carolina Hurricanes. The two sides now will meet Wednesday afternoon at Scotiabank Arena for Game 5.

The biggest lineup question mark for either team is the availability of David Pastrnak. He’s expected to take warmups ahead of Game 5, so he can be considered a game-time decision.

If he’s in, he’ll go with his usual linemates of Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand. If he’s out, Charlie Coyle, Jack Studnicka and Anders Bjork seem like the likely candidates to skate in the first line right wing spot.

Because neither team took a morning skate Wednesday with the 4 p.m. ET puck drop, plenty of lineup questions remain up in the air — such as who goes out for Boston if Pastrnak is in, or what Jordan Staal’s availability is after getting flattened by Charlie McAvoy in Game 4.

We also don’t know for sure who will be in net for the Canes, but after the Game 4 meltdown, one has to think Carolina will go back to Petr Mrazek in place of James Reimer.

Jaroslav Halak will be in net for Boston.

Here are the projected lineups for Bruins-Hurricanes Game 5:

BOSTON BRUINS (3-1)
Brad Marchand–Patrice Bergeron–David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk–David Krejci–Ondrej Kase
Sean Kuraly–Charlie Coyle–Anders Bjork
Joakim Nordstrom–Par Lindholm–Chris Wagner

Zdeno Chara–Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug–Brandon Carlo
Matt Grzelcyk–Connor Clifton

Jaroslav Halak

CAROLINA HURRICANES (1-3)
Jordan Martinook–Sebastian Aho–Teuvo Teravainen
Ryan Dzingel–Vincent Trocheck–Justin Williams
Warren Foegele–Jordan Staal–Brock McGinn
Nino Niederreiter–Morgan Geekie–Martin Necas

Jaccob Slavin–Dougie Hamilton
Brady Skjei–Sami Vatanen
Jake Gardiner–Hayden Fleury

Petr Mrazek