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The Senators will look to start a winning streak with a confidence-building win over the Hurricanes on Thursday, a team that has historically given them fits.Karl B DeBlaker/The Associated Press

A win over the Carolina Hurricanes would do more for the Ottawa Senators than bring them two points closer to a team ahead of them in the standings.

It would also give the Senators a confidence-building win over a club that has traditionally given them fits.

The Senators have a 36-45-8-4 lifetime record against the Hurricanes, who visit the Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday night. Carolina beat Ottawa 3-2 in overtime the last time the clubs met in November.

"It's just one of those teams I think that this team has been struggling with for ages," said Senators captain Erik Karlsson. "I don't know why, if I had an answer, we would have changed it a long time ago.

"They're a good team and they're playing really good right now. They're above us in the standings so obviously it's a team we're going to have to beat and we're going to do whatever we have to do to get two points."

Ottawa snapped a three-game losing streak Tuesday night with a 2-1 shootout win over Buffalo and know now is the time to start stringing some victories together.

"We've been talking about getting momentum through winning one game here and trying to string something together, but we've kind of stalled the last little while when it came to that," said forward Zack Smith. "We would win a game and then come out and not quite play the game we wanted an end up losing so it might be a little cliche, but the next game's huge. Another win Thursday would be the start of a small winning streak and you never know after that."

As of Wednesday the Senators sat six points back of the final wild card spot, with every team ahead of them having at least one game in hand.

The Senators know time is starting to run short, and pinning their hopes on another remarkable run similar to last year's probably isn't in their best interest.

Last season the Senators were 14 points out of a playoff spot on Feb. 18 and went on an astonishing 23-4-4 run to get into the playoffs, but realize those kinds of runs are rare.

"We've got to start winning games and we've got to start winning them now," said forward Mark Stone. "We need to find a way to string a few together, and anything can happen."

The problem this season has been the Senators inability to find consistency. Their longest winning streak was four games back in November and since then have only managed to win back-to-back games twice.

Karlsson spoke of the importance of having the right attitude when facing a season that has had so much inconsistency.

"It's one of those things you've got to try and get it rolling a little bit and get that feeling in here," he said. "It's hard when you lose games and you play well to kind of get out of the rut and you get a little stubborn sometimes and you do things without thinking and I think (Tuesday) we did a lot of good things and I think that's what we need to focus on.

Notes: C Kyle Turris was given a maintenance day. Ottawa will name its starting goalie after Thursday's morning skate.

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