In their first trip to Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the New York Islanders 3-2 Thursday night.
After scoring the game-winner in the third period against Detroit Tuesday, Hurricanes defenseman Ron Hainsey got it done for the Canes in 3-on-3 overtime as he won a race to the net, received a nice pass from Jordan Staal and slipped a backhander past Islanders’ goalie Thomas Greiss to cap off an impressive come from behind effort for Carolina.
The first period was played pretty evenly, and despite the Islanders outshooting the Hurricanes 8-4, the teams were even on the scoreboard at one apiece. The home team drew first blood, as winger Matt Martin tipped in a point shot from defenseman Nick Leddy.
The Canes would tie things up about seven minutes later, as rookie winger Brock McGinn beat Greiss with a quick snapshot from between the faceoff circles for his second career NHL goal.
Despite the Hurricanes outshooting the Isles 8-6 in the second period, the Islanders took the lead on a power play goal as center Frans Nielsen swooped in with a burst of speed and roofed a backhander over Eddie Lack in a nice individual play.
That power play goal would be the only one scored, as the Hurricanes continued to struggle with the man advantage going 0 for 2 while the Islanders went 1 for 2.
The Canes really ratcheted things up in the third period, outshooting the Islanders 13-4 as they pressed for the equalizer.
After generating several quality chances, they finally broke through with 5:04 left in regulation. Captain Eric Staal, celebrating his birthday, made a nice move at the blue line to get the puck to his younger brother Jordan Staal. Jordan zipped a beautiful cross ice pass to winger Chris Terry, who buried a one timer from the right circle for his second goal of the season, tying the game at 2.
The overtime period was pretty much all Hurricanes as they outshot the Islanders 4-1, generating a few nice chances before Hainsey scored the winner.
The Canes ended up outshooting New York 29-19 for the game.
The win was the first for Canes backup goalie Eddie Lack who put up a solid effort, stopping 17 of 19 shots to get the win in a nice bounce back effort after a rough outing in San Jose last Saturday.
The game concludes the Hurricanes’ annual State Fair road trip. The team went 4-3-0 on the trip, moving their overall record to 4-6-0.
