STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS
NEW YORK — The Carolina Hurricanes didn’t think they played their best in Game 3 against the New York Islanders. They did enough to move a win away from advancing to the second round.
Defensemen Brent Burns and Dmitry Orlov got the Hurricanes off to a fast start and they held on to beat the Islanders 3-2 on Thursday for a 3-0 series lead.
Game 4 goes Saturday at 11 a.m. PDT in New York.
Sebastian Aho also scored for the Hurricanes and Andrei Svechnikov had two assists. Frederik Andersen stopped 29 shots. Carolina won for eighth time in nine games at UBS Arena.
“We didn’t really play our way tonight, it wasn’t there,” Svechnikov said. “But we take the win and run away.”
Brock Nelson and Pierre Engvall scored for the Islanders. They are a loss away from being eliminated by Carolina in Round 1 for the second straight year.
Ilya Sorokin, getting the start after Semyon Varlamov went in the first two games, was pulled in the second period after giving up three goals on 14 shots. Varlamov
came on and stopped all eight shots he faced.
“I thought it was a hard-fought game, there were not many chances on both sides,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy said. “We had a good push in the third. We had our chances and the puck wasn’t bouncing our way.”
Trailing 3-2 in the third period, New York pressed for the tying goal, outshooting Carolina 11-3, but couldn’t get the tying goal.
“We knew it was coming, they were going to give it everything they had,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. ‘That’s exactly what happened but obviously Freddy came up with a couple of huge saves and that’s the difference in the game.”
Brind’Amour credited the goalie for always being even-keeled regardless of the situation.
“He was very, very sharp,” he said. “Obviously, the difference in the game. That’s kind of his demeanor. You can never really tell with him what kind of game it is.”
The Islanders pulled Varlamov for an extra skater with 1:55 to go, but could not beat Andersen.
“Both teams battled, sometimes you’re just a bounce away.” New York’s Kyle Palmieri said.