The New York Islanders are frustrated they didn’t earn a split of the first two games of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series against the Carolina Hurricanes.
But the loss the Islanders are lamenting isn’t their historic Game 2 defeat.
New York will try to climb back into the best-of-seven series when it faces Carolina in Game 3 on Thursday night in Elmont, N.Y.
The Hurricanes went up 2-0 in the series on Monday night, when they scored three times in the final 2:15 of regulation to complete a comeback from a three-goal deficit and beat the visiting Islanders 5-3.
New York led 3-0 less than four minutes into the second period and was clinging to a one-goal lead when Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour pulled goaltender Frederik Andersen with 2:49 left in the third. Sebastian Aho tied the score 34 seconds later before Jordan Martinook netted a goal nine seconds after that to make it 4-3.
The two-goal flurry was the fastest in franchise playoff history for the Hurricanes, who iced the win on Jake Guentzel’s empty-netter with 56 seconds remaining.
The loss dropped the Islanders to 81-1 all-time when leading a postseason game by three goals. It was the third-ever comeback from a three-goal deficit in a playoff game for the Hurricanes, and it marked just the seventh time in NHL history that a team has scored the game-tying and go-ahead goals in the final three minutes of a postseason game.
“It was a special night, for sure,” Brind’Amour said. “It’s one of those games that we’ll probably look back on for a long time.”
As stunning as the defeat was for the Islanders, it didn’t surprise coach Patrick Roy. New York was outshot 39-12, including 17-1 in the third period.
Roy expressed more regret over Saturday’s 3-1 loss in Game 1, where the Islanders outshot the Hurricanes 34-26. New York blocked 21 shots on Saturday compared to 36 on Monday.
“A lot of you see the last game as a heartbreaking loss, but for me, the heartbreaking loss was (Game 1) because that’s the game we outplayed them,” Roy said after practice on Wednesday. “(Game 2), they deserved it. They played better than us. Could we have stolen that game? Yeah, that’d be great if we had done that. But it didn’t happen.”
Roy said Ilya Sorokin will start in net on Thursday over Semyon Varlamov, who started four of the final six regular-season games before starting the first two games against the Hurricanes.
Although fourth-line left winger Matt Martin missed practice Wednesday for maintenance issues, the Islanders are likely to be the healthier team on Thursday night.
Brind’Amour said defenseman Brett Pesce more than likely will be out for at least the remainder of the series with a lower-body injury that he suffered in the second period of Game 2. Tony DeAngelo is expected to replace Pesce.
“You need depth all the way throughout the lineup and outside of the lineup for a playoff run — you’re going to run into injuries,” Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said. “Obviously, it’s a big hole for us, but we’ve got a very capable D-core and have guys like Tony who can step in and play well for us.”
Brind’Amour also said that right winger Jesper Fast, who missed the first two games of the series with an upper-body injury, will not travel with the team to New York.
–Field Level Media
