Canes push Islanders to the brink
Defensemen Brent Burns and Dmitry Orlov got Carolina off to a fast start and the Hurricanes held on to beat the Islanders, 3-2, on Thursday night for a 3-0 lead in the first-round series.
Sebastian Aho also scored for the Hurricanes and Andrei Svechnikov picked up two assists. Frederik Andersen stopped 29 shots. Carolina won for the eighth time in nine games at UBS Arena, which opened for the 2021-22 season.
Brock Nelson and Pierre Engvall scored for the Islanders. They are a loss away from being eliminated by Carolina in the first round 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.
Game 4 is Saturday.
With the Hurricanes leading 3-2, Andersen made a nice save falling backward on a shot by Alexander Romanov 6 ½ minutes into the third period. The puck lay in the paint briefly before the goalie covered it up.
Andersen made another stellar save while sitting on the ice, reaching up to grab a shot by Romanov with 5:48 left.
The Islanders pulled Varlamov for an extra skater with 1:55 to go, but could not get the equalizer.
Trailing, 2-0 after one period, the Islanders got on the scoreboard early in the second when Engvall took a pass in front from Anders Lee and fired a shot between Andersen’s legs.
Aho restored the two-goal lead at 7:14 when he got a pass from Svechnikov and fired a shot from the high slot past Sorokin for his second goal of the series. That ended Sorokin’s night.
Nelson brought the Islanders back within one late in the second period. Ryan Pulock’s shot was deflected off teammate Kyle Palmieri in front and Nelson came in and quickly put it past Andersen on the right side with 2:21 to go.
The Islanders held a 15-9 advantage on shots in the first period, but trailed, 2-0, after 20 minutes. The Isles’ shot total in the period exceeded their total in all of Game 2 when they managed only 12.