Hurricanes push Isles to brink
NEW YORK: Sebastian Aho scored the game-winning goal in the second period for the visiting Carolina Hurricanes, who beat the New York Islanders 3-2 on Thursday night in Elmont, New York, to take a 3-0 lead in their Eastern Conference first-round series.
Game Four is scheduled for today in Elmont. Only four NHL teams have lost a best-of-seven series after going ahead three games to none.
Brent Burns and Dmitry Orlov scored in the first for the Hurricanes, who are attempting to advance beyond the first round for the fourth straight season. Goalie Frederik Andersen made 29 saves.
Pierre Engvall and Brock Nelson scored in the second for the Islanders, who haven’t been swept since Carolina eliminated them in the second round in 2019. Ilya Sorokin, starting for the first time this series, was pulled after allowing three goals on 14 shots. Semyon Varlamov recorded eight saves in relief.
The Hurricanes led 2-0 after the first despite being outshot 15-9.
Burns opened the scoring at the 4:46minute mark, when his shot from the right face-off circle went beyond New York’s Mathew Barzal and Mike Reilly and under Sorokin’s stick arm.
Andersen turned back two prime opportunities by the Islanders — first by deflecting a shot by Barzal and then gloving the rebound by Noah Dobson, who was firing into a wide-open corner of the net — less than a minute before Orlov doubled the lead.
Kyle Palmieri’s pass eluded Nelson and was picked up in the neutral zone by Andrei Svechnikov. The right winger dished to Orlov, who avoided Palmieri and sent a shot that went around Reilly and beyond Sorokin’s stick with 9:35 minutes left.
The Islanders cut the gap in half 2:48 minutes into the second when Engvall took a pass from Anders Lee and beat Andersen from point-blank range.
The Hurricanes chased Sorokin 4:26 minutes later after Aho’s shot from the slot sailed past his stick. Nelson again pulled the Islanders within a goal with 2:21 minutes left when he put back the rebound of Palmieri’s shot.
In Tampa, Matthew Tkachuk scored twice, including an empty-net goal to ice the game, as the visiting Florida Panthers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-3 to take a commanding 3-0 lead in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference playoff series.
After Nick Paul cut the Lightning’s deficit to 4-3 with 5:10 minutes remaining, they pulled goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy with 1:45 minutes left for the extra skater.
Tkachuk put the game away with an empty-netter with 32 seconds remaining for his third play-off goal as the Atlantic Division champions beat the Lightning for the fourth straight time in Tampa.
Brandon Montour had a goal and an assist, and Sam Reinhart and Steven Lorentz tallied. Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves for the Panthers, who are 5-1-0 against Tampa Bay this season.
Steven Stamkos, Tyler Motte and Nick Paul hit the net for the Lightning, while Vasilevskiy stopped 26 shots.
RESULTS (home team in CAPS, best-of-seven series)
Florida 5 TAMPA BAY 3 (Panthers lead series 3-0); Carolina 3 NY ISLANDERS 2 (Hurricanes lead series 3-0)