Kyle Palmieri and Matt Martin scored in a 44-second span late in the third period Friday night to spark a historic outburst by the host New York Islanders, who beat the Carolina Hurricanes 5-1 in Game 3 of an Eastern Conference first-round playoff series in Elmont, N.Y.
The Hurricanes lead the best-of-seven series two games to one. Game 4 is scheduled for Sunday afternoon.
Palmieri redirected a shot by Sebastian Aho as the Islanders’ fifth power play of the game expired with 3:51 left before Martin added the insurance goal for New York. Scott Mayfield scored an empty-netter with 1:49 left and Anders Lee scored 16 seconds later.
The four goals in 2:17 marked the fastest four-goal flurry in NHL playoff history.
Casey Cizikas scored in the second for the Islanders, who were playing their first playoff game at two-year-old UBS Arena. Goalie Ilya Sorokin made 30 saves.
Jesper Fast scored in the second for the Hurricanes. Goalie Antti Raanta recorded 32 saves.
The Hurricanes outshot the Islanders 15-7 in a scoreless first. Carolina had its best chance exactly four minutes into the period, when Sorokin gloved a point-blank shot by Martin Necas after the visitors won a faceoff. New York nearly broke the tie with 1:02 left, when Lee fired wide of Raanta on the rebound of a shot by Mathew Barzal.
The Islanders killed off three penalties — the first of which was assessed to Palmieri with 34 seconds left in the first — in the opening 11 minutes of the second period before Cizikas finally scored with 7:11 left. Fast’s backhander off the boards bounced to Ryan Pulock, who was at the Hurricanes’ blue line. Pulock threaded a backhanded pass between Jalen Chatfield and Jesse Puljujarvi to Cizikas, who went to one knee and beat Raanta.
The Islanders almost scored twice more — a shot by Hudson Fasching rang off the post and Raanta cleared a shot by Bo Horvat off the goal line — before the Hurricanes tied the score with what amounted to a short-handed own goal by New York with 3:04 left.
With Jesperi Kotkaniemi in the penalty box for holding, Barzal lost control of the puck in the Hurricanes’ zone. Jordan Staal chipped a pass off the boards, caught up to the puck and dished to Fast in the slot. Sorokin slowed but didn’t stop Fast’s shot and teammate Brock Nelson accidentally nudged the puck over the goal line as he tried sweeping it out of the crease.
–Field Level Media
