OH , BOYCHUK!
Johnny, Isles raze ’Canes; Devs fall in OT
The Islanders scored six goals again. They had a dominant third period to pull out another win and remained one of two NHL teams without a regulation loss at home. Still, coach Doug Weight found plenty of things he didn’t like.
Johnny Boychuk scored the tiebreaking goal on a slap shot with 4:25 remaining and the Islanders rallied to beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 6-4, at Barclays Center on Thursday night.
The Isles took a 3-1 lead in the first period but gave up three goals in the second to fall behind before responding with three in the third.
“The second period you just get away from everything you did well,” Weight said. “We just go into 1-on-1 mode, hold the puck, decisions at the blue line start going south and then we get back to it in the third and we play a way better game. “(We) can be so much better,” he added. “We’re getting there. It’s not a hopeless case.”
Mathew Barzal had a goal and two assists, and Nick Leddy, Josh Bailey and Cal Clutterbuck each had a goal and an assist to help the Islanders improve to 6-0-2 at home. Jordan Eberle added an empty-netter and Thomas Greiss finished with 28 saves.
Sebastian Aho had a goal and an assist, and Elias Lindholm, Noah Hanafin and Derek Ryan also scored for Carolina, which was 3-0-2 in its previous five. Scott Darling stopped 30 shots.
The Islanders trailed 4-3 after two periods and tied it at 7:22 of the third. Barzal sent a pass in front to Anders Lee at the right side, and he backhanded it to Bailey, who put it in from the left side for his fourth.
On the winner, Boychuk got a pass from Casey Cizikas at the right point and fired the puck past Darling.
“It was a good play and a key goal, but we were doing the right things and we got the result we wanted,” Boychuk said.
Eberle capped the scoring with 1:18 left for his seventh goal of the season, all in the last eight games.
“It was a good win for us, but the second period was really sloppy,” Boychuk said. “We weren’t careful with the puck and (made) bad decisions and we let them back in the game.”
The Islanders outshot the Hurricanes 14-9 in the first and led 3-1, with all the scoring coming in the final 3:39. Barzal broke through first as he brought the puck up the left side on a 2-on-1 break with Eberle. Barzal thought about passing before firing the puck past Darling’s glove side for his fourth with 3:39 to go.
With Lee off for tripping, Clutterbuck doubled the lead 36 seconds later on a short-handed breakaway. Carolina was still on the power play when Lindholm deflected a shot by Aho from the left circle with 2:30 remaining. Leddy made it 3-1 about two minutes later.