Hurricanes beat Islanders
RALEIGH, N.C. — Sebastian Aho set up Justin Williams’ go-ahead goal with 9:45 remaining, and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the New York Islanders 5-2 on Wednesday night to take a 3-0 lead in their second-round series.
Teuvo Teravainen had two goals, including an empty-netter with 57.1 seconds remaining, Justin Faulk also scored and Aho added another emptynet goal with 4.8 seconds to play.
The wild-card Hurricanes — in the playoffs for the first time in a decade — moved within a victory of a berth in the Eastern Conference final and took a 3-0 series lead for just the second time since they moved to North Carolina in 1997. After losing the first two games of its first-round series with Washington, Carolina has won seven of eight.
Josh Bailey had a goal and an assist and Devon Toews scored on the power play to spark a dormant Islanders offense. New York had scored one goal in the previous two games of this series and its average of 2 1⁄2 goals in its previous six postseason games was the lowest among the eight teams NHL
HURRICANES 5
ISLANDERS 2 that are still playing.
But it wasn’t enough to keep them from a precarious spot. After sweeping Pittsburgh in the first round, the Islanders are in danger of being swept. Only four teams in NHL history have won a series after losing the first three games.
Curtis McElhinney — who at 35 years and 343 days old became the oldest goalie in NHL history to make his first playoff start — stopped 28 shots in place of Petr Mrazek, who is day to day with a lower body injury. After McElhinney made two bang-bang saves in the second period while doing a split, the crowd chanted his first name.
Robin Lehner stopped 34 shots for the Islanders, but his career record against the Hurricanes fell to 0-7.
It took an impressive individual effort for Aho to put the Hurricanes ahead to stay.
After Nino Niederreiter dumped the puck in, Lehner played it behind the net — only to have Aho snatch it in the corner and pass to Williams, who chipped it past the Islanders goalie.
New York couldn’t get Lehner off the ice for an extra attacker until about 90 seconds remained, and if Teravainen didn’t ice it with his empty-netter in the final minute, Aho certainly did with his.
The Hurricanes have six players dealing with publicly known injuries, but — aside from the injury to Mrazek — they seem to be getting a bit healthier.