The Carolina Hurricanes took another step towards securing the Metro division title with a 5-2 win over the New York Islanders on Sunday, April 24.
The Canes (52-20-8) battled some more injury woes over the course of the afternoon as goaltender Antti Raanta exited the game in the second period with an apparent lower-body injury. With netminder Frederik Andersen still unavailable after sustaining a lower-body injury against the Colorado Avalanche on April 16, rookie goalie Pyotr Kochetkov was tasked with holding off the Islanders (35-34-10) for the rest of the game.
“Well what are you gonna do, cry over it?” said head coach Rod Brind’Amour. “We just have to keep moving forward. Thankfully, we brought [Kochetkov] over. It’s not what you draw up or what you want to have happened, with injuries, especially with goalies. Hopefully, neither of them will be too serious and we’ll get them back.”
Kochetkov, for his part, held his own to close out the win. In his second career NHL game, Kochetkov stopped seven of the eight shots he faced, only allowing Ryan Pulock’s game-tying goal during a Canes penalty in the second period. From there, the new kid on the block battened down the hatches to give his team a chance to win.
“The kid looks great,” said center Jordan Staal. “He’s played really well for us right from the start. It’s unfortunate. Obviously you don’t want injuries in that position, but the team has obviously done a great job having some depth.”
The Hurricanes got off to a promising start at UBS Arena, taking a 2-1 lead into the first intermission. In the first 10 minutes alone, an Islanders turnover led to center Derek Stepan’s opening goal and center Seth Jarvis executed a slick power play goal.
The Islanders rode the momentum of Ross Johnston’s goal late in the first to tie the game at 2-2 late in the second. Carolina’s league-leading penalty kill allowed just two shots all afternoon, but one of those ended up going in the net off Pulock’s stick.
In the final period, center Max Domi put the Canes ahead again for good. Left wing Teuvo Teräväinen collected the puck behind the New York net and dished a smooth pass to a waiting Domi in the slot, who fired the puck past Semyon Varlamov for the go-ahead goal.
“Can you get him to shoot more? Yeah,” Brind’Amour said. “We say that about Teräväinen, too, but he scores goals too. That’s just their nature, that’s how they are. They want to set up other guys and are very unselfish, but he definitely has the ability to put the puck in the net, which we’d love to see a little more of.”
Carolina put the game on ice with a pair of empty-net goals in the last few minutes. Right wing Jesper Fast netted the first one with 2:07 to play, followed by defenseman Brendan Smith’s empty-netter 57 seconds later to finalize the score.
The result sets up a showdown with the New York Rangers in Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, April 26. While the Rangers have a game in hand, the Canes hold a four-point lead over New York in the Metropolitan division standings. Carolina also has the advantage in a tiebreaker scenario with 45 regulation wins to New York’s 43.
With the playoffs quickly approaching, the matchup will play a big part in deciding the Metro and shaping the overall playoff picture. Puck drop between the Hurricanes and the Rangers is set for 7 p.m.
