Raleigh, NC (AP) — The Carolina Hurricanes trailed by two goals halfway through the final round before suddenly facing the prospect of losing their home-ice advantage against the New York Islanders.
Jakob Slavin, Jesper Fast and the rest of the Hurricanes turned in a steady response to a team in the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season.
Fast took a cross-ice pass from Jordan Staal and buried it behind Ilya Sorokin at 5:03 in overtime on Wednesday night as the Hurricanes beat the Islanders 4–3, taking a 2–0 lead in their first-round playoff series. became an advantage.
“Certainly in acceleration we were fine,” said coach Rod Brind’Amour. “When we got down we probably played our best hockey.”
Staal’s pass came off the left near the boards and found Sorokin fast loose to the right for a finish on the pads. And that opportunity only came as Slavin managed a game-tying score midway through the third period despite a difficult angle from the goal line on the left.
“We know how to play and we’ve been a team all year long that will play hard until the last buzzer,” Slavin said.
Paul Stastny and Stefan Nossen also scored goals for the Hurricanes, while Antti Ranta made 23 saves. But Carolina lost top-line forward Teuvo Teravenin, who coach Rod Brind’Amour said had broken his arm on an unintentional slash later in the third period.
Kyle Palmieri, Matthew Barzal and Brock Nelson scored for the Islanders, and Sorokin made 32 saves. New York coach Len Lambert was also incensed by a late no-call when defenseman Scott Mayfield inadvertently took a high stick from Carolina’s Jordan Martinuk shortly before Fast’s winning goal.
The night was capped in which the Islanders had no power plays compared to the Hurricanes’ six, which included two double-miners for high-sticking.
“Right now we just have to worry about the next game,” Lambert said.
The Hurricanes scored twice with the man advantage in the first game of the series on Monday night – their first multiple-goal game on the power play since early March – before the teams scored 37 for Horn in Carolina’s 2–1 victory. Minute pieces shared.
This time, Carolina took an early lead on a Stastny deflection from over the crease, then went up 2–0 on an own goal that bounced off the stick of Islanders’ Sebastian Aho, who was on a power play off Nossen’s dump-in. But was coming Somehow slipped by Sorokin.
Yet the Islanders responded with three straight goals, including Barzal – who had missed the previous 23 regular-season games with a lower-body injury – by turning a bad open-ice turnover from Brady Skjei around Brett Pesce and Ranta’s . by hitting the puck past. Last minute of second.
Nelson made it 3–2 when he took a pass from Palmieri, got past Martin Necas and beat Ranta down the left side at 9:18 of the third. About three minutes later, Slavin replied directly from the left corner, ricocheting the puck off the right side of Sorokin’s helmet and inside the far post to eventually send it into overtime.
“It’s not easy being two down on the road in a building like this, trailing, getting it (3-2),” said defenseman Noah Dobson, who had two assists. “It’s unfortunate. I thought overall we were pretty solid tonight. It’s disappointing we didn’t get the result.”
Mess
A cold second period hiccup came with 8:16 remaining on the clocks at PNC Arena. This forced the public-address announcer to provide updates every 30 seconds through continuous play until the clock was restored to working order during stoppage with 4:24 remaining.
siren sounders
Former Hurricanes forward Betts Battaglia played the pregame “hurricane warning” siren for the team to take the ice from the locker room.
The list included North Carolina men’s basketball player RJ Davis for the second intermission. It continued to represent area Atlantic Coast Conference college programs starting for Game 1 with North Carolina State men’s basketball player DJ Burns Jr. and Duke football coach Mike Elko.
next
The series will shift to New York for two games, starting with Game 3 on Friday.
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