Behind a three-point night from New York Islanders center Jean-Gabriel Pageau, the Long Island team took down the Hurricanes 4-3. It marks the first time New York beat Carolina at home since Nov. 24, 2018.
Despite a pair of power-play goals from right wing Andrei Svechnikov, the Hurricanes (17-9-1) suffered their fourth loss in the past five games. A series of lackluster performances, including against the Islanders (10-11-7), have caused the Canes to slide to third in the metro behind the Washington Capitals and New Jersey Devils.
From top to bottom, the Hurricanes have been inconsistent at every position, which doesn’t help a team looking for answers. It’s hard to pinpoint one specific issue. Rather, it is a collection of untimely mistakes and lapses of judgment that make the difference in these games.
Each team had its share of good chances in the first frame. A tightly contested period saw the Hurricanes go up 1-0 courtesy of Svechnikov’s first goal of the night.
Taking advantage of a bad change by the Islanders, Svechnikov and center Seth Jarvis went on attack in transition. Svechnikov was looking to saucer pass the puck over to Jarvis but the pass hit the skate of Islanders defenseman Noah Dobson and into the net.
With Canes netminder Pyotr Kochetkov shouldering away good chances with his blocker, Carolina took Svechnikov’s goal and the 1-0 lead into the first intermission. The middle 20 is what cost the Canes, getting outshot 12-2 and giving up three goals, the Hurricanes suffered another second-period collapse.
The Islanders tied the game at one apiece when Dobson found Pageau with a cross-slot pass that Pageau snapped above Kochetkov’s glove from in tight. Svechnikov eventually reclaimed the lead for the Canes when he put away a puck that had completely crossed through the crease multiple times.
Responding less than a minute later, New York right wing Oliver Wahlstrom stole the puck and wristed a shot low to the ice that beat a standing Kochetkov. The Islanders were pushing back at five-on-five play and kept getting rewarded.
With less than four minutes in the period, the Islanders added two more goals to take a 4-2 lead heading into the third.
New York right wing Maxim Tsyplakov shot the puck and then went skate-to-stick with the rebound to beat Kochetkov. Center Bo Horvat followed it up by one-timing a pass from Pageau to end his 13-game goal drought.
The effort from the Canes was there in the third but a hot goaltender in Ilya Sorokin stonewalled the team. The Hurricanes outshot the Islanders 19-2 in the period and barely managed to come up with anything to show for it.
Center Martin Necas, who is tied for the most points in the NHL, had multiple high-danger chances thwarted by the Russian netminder. It wasn’t until the final minute, and with an extra attacker on the ice, that Carolina netted a goal.
On a rebound from a shot from the point by Hurricanes defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere, center Jesperi Kotkaniemi was in the right place, at the right time, and scored his fourth goal of the season.
It was too little, too late for the Canes in Long Island as they dropped a crucial two points against a Metropolitan opponent.
Carolina has four games in a row on home ice where it will look to find a way to get back into form, the first of which is on Tuesday at 7 p.m. against the San Jose Sharks.
