The Carolina Hurricanes ran away with a 6-3 victory over the New York Islanders Saturday night at PNC Arena.
The Hurricanes, (25-21-10) who have struggled offensively as of late, scoring only one goal in three of their last four games, broke out of a bit of slump, scoring five goals in one period to overwhelm the Islanders (29-19-6).
“I think, it just went in tonight. I think we played really well last night against Pittsburgh, it just didn’t go in,” Hurricanes head coach Bill Peters said. “They started going in a little bit in the second so it was a good night.”
After having spent much of the first 17 minutes in the Islanders zone and coming close to scoring several times, the Canes finally broke through late in the first period.
Making a statement after being a healthy scratch the night before, Canes forward Riley Nash made a man miss along the boards, and found forward Jay McClement below the goal line. McClement passed it back to Nash, positioned in the faceoff circle, who picked the top left corner of the net, beating New York netminder Jaroslav Halak.
The Canes added to their lead with a five-goal scoring outburst in the second period, eventually taking a 6-2 lead into the second intermission.
Canes rookie defenseman Noah Hanifin started the goal barrage, as his shot from the point found its way through traffic and eventually the legs of Halak.
Carolina forward Kris Versteeg got in on the scoring fun about halfway through the middle frame when he received a perfect cross-ice pass from forward Phillip Di Giuseppe, leaving Versteeg with the simple task of tapping the puck into the net before Halak could get over in time.
“[Di Giuseppe] has done a great job,” Peters said. “He provides a lot of different dimensions. He’s a good complimentary guy on whatever line he plays on, with his ability to skate.”
Nestrasil scored his fourth goal in as many games on a perfectly executed 2-on-1 with forward Joakim Nordstrom. Nordstrom placed a feed past a sprawling Islander defenseman to Nestrasil, who found a large portion of net open with Halak too slow to get across his crease.
“Nordy made a hell of a pass. It was a beautiful saucer, right on my tape,” Nestrasil said. “I just finished it.”
Things got a little dicey in the later part of the period as the Islanders scored two quick goals — the first from forward John Tavares, the second from defenseman Nick Leddy — within two minutes of each other to cut the Canes advantage in half.
The Canes answered with two quick goals of their own in the final minute and a half of the period. Forward Victor Rask scored both goals on rebounds left by Halak, the second of which came with a second left in the period.
“It was nice to contribute to the team,” Rask said. “We talk about bearing down on our opportunities and I think we did a good job on that.”
New York pulled within three in the third period as forward Matt Martin fired one past the glove of Canes goaltender Eddie Lack. Lack came into the game late in the second period, replacing starter Cam Ward who left with an apparent lower-body injury.
The Canes tightened up defensively the remainder of the period, and held on, 6-3, to pick up an important two points in the race for a playoff spot.
