Despite holding a 3-1 series lead, the Carolina Hurricanes failed to win their most important game of the postseason so far.
The Canes (52-21-9) fell to the New York Islanders (42-31-9) 3-2 in a hard-fought battle on Tuesday night, despite beating the Islanders 5-2 on Sunday, April 23. Carolina came into this game hoping to clinch a second round spot at home, but the Islanders battled back and shut down the buzzing Canes offense.
“Yeah, I don’t think it’s a terrible game,” said captain center Jordan Stall. “We gave them some freebies. It’s hard to score goals, especially in the playoffs, but we did a good job battling back. We played a great game and had a lot of chances to win the game. We got to clean it up and play a little more solid.”
As the excitement of the series lead filled PNC Arena, the expectations coming from Caniacs was sky-high. When the puck dropped for the first period, all eyes were on goaltender Antti Raanta, the so-far series hero for Carolina. Raanta came into the game holding an 8-0 home postseason record, but tonight served as his first loss. He finished the game with a .864 save percentage, his lowest of the series thus far.
The Islanders were able to score first — with only four shots on goal — off of a shot from left wing Pierre Engvall. Throughout the period, the Canes couldn’t seem to create any hard offensive runs but were able to rack up some shots.
What could be considered the “turning point” of the series came during the first period on a power play goal from right wing Stefan Noesen. However, the goal was challenged by Islanders head coach Lane Lambert, and was eventually overturned, keeping the score at 1-0 and subsequently sending the Canes back into the fight for their first goal of the game.
The search for a goal wasn’t stopped until halfway through the second period, as center Paul Statstny was able to finally get the Canes on the board after 33 minutes of play. Canes center Sebastian Aho had a painful second period after getting hit in the face on a shot from Islanders center Brock Nelson — he eventually left the game and did return until halfway through the period.
“Yeah, I didn’t know what hit me,” said Aho. “Just kind of kind of came pretty quickly, and obviously the guy was probably not aiming for my face either. But it’s hockey, it happens. Great job by the doctors, they worked pretty quickly, at least it felt pretty quickly. A few stitches there and right back at it.”
By the end of the second period, New York led 3-1, but Sebastian “Superman” Aho was able to come back from his injury and help his team out. He slipped one past Islanders netminder Ilya Sorokin to make it 3-2 and once again show his resiliency.
The Canes’ special teams weren’t locked in tonight as they went 0 for 4 on the powerplay. A late 5-on-4 opportunity in the third period allowed the Canes to take many shots, but none were lucky enough to bring the game into overtime.
“Bounces didn’t go our way tonight,” said head coach Rod Brind’Amor. “That’s plain and simple. I like the way we played, played hard. You know, it’s a couple of mistakes that cost us, but there weren’t a ton of those, just that bounces didn’t go our way. It’s very simple.”
Carolina will travel to New York for game six of the series, and their hopes of clinching a second round spot will follow them. Puck drop is set for Friday, April 28.
