The Carolina Hurricanes came out with a strong early effort against the New York Islanders at PNC Arena Tuesday night, but a late collapse in the second period and an inability to finish ultimately doomed the team in a 3-2 overtime loss.
After a wild 8-4 win for the Canes (28-27-12) in Brooklyn the night before where it seemed everything either offense touched found the twine, this game was very tame by comparison. Both goalies put up a strong performance; Cam Ward stopped 29 of 32 shots for the Canes, while Thomas Greiss turned aside 32 of 34 pucks for the Islanders (33-25-11).
“You knew it wasn’t going to be 8-4 or 12 goals combined [again],” head coach Bill Peters said. “Tonight was a little more realistic. I thought both goaltenders played well. I thought there were some breakdowns both ways and the goaltenders bailed some people out.”
The Canes won the opening faceoff in overtime, but defenseman Jaccob Slavin turned the puck over trying to find forward Jordan Staal through the middle of the ice. The Islanders brought the puck into the Hurricanes zone, and forward John Tavares took a drop pass from forward Josh Ho-Sang between the faceoff circles and snapped a shot past Ward for the winner.
“We had the puck there,” Slavin said. “I tried to make a play to Jordo [Staal] and I just turned it over. They came down with a good amount of speed. Tavares made a pretty good shot; I probably screened Wardo [Ward] a little bit there.”
The Canes struck first with 7:30 to play in the first period. Forward Lee Stempniak won a battle along the boards and fed forward Joakim Nordstrom between the circles, who snapped a shot past Greiss for his second goal in as many games for a 1-0 lead. Rookie forward Lucas Wallmark, playing in his second NHL game, earned his first NHL point with the secondary assist on Nordstrom’s tally.
Forward Elias Lindholm pushed the lead to two on a nice individual play 40 seconds into the second. He stripped Islanders defenseman Nick Leddy of the puck just inside the Canes’ defensive zone, flew into the offensive zone on a breakaway and buried a shot stick side on Greiss to make it 2-0.
Forward Jay McClement left the game in the first period with a lower-body injury and did not return to the game.
Wallmark came inches from his first NHL goal towards the middle of the second, but Greiss stretched out his right arm along the goal line to deny the Swedish rookie of his first marker.
The Islanders cut the lead in half with just over a minute left in the middle frame; Isles forward Nikolai Kulemin took a shot that went off Carolina defenseman Slavin’s skate and right to Ho-Sang at the right circle, who buried a shot to make it 2-1.
“If we could’ve tightened up, it would’ve been beneficial,” Peters said. “We gave up a lot, I thought, here tonight. You don’t want to give up the amount and the quality that we gave up.”
New York tied the game on the next shift off a fluky bounce, a loose puck off the end boards caromed right to Islanders forward Jason Chimera at the right circle, and he snapped a shot over Ward’s glove to make it 2-2.
“It was tough letting them back in and letting them tie up the game,” Lindholm said. “I think we had good control there and a lot of chances to put in a third one. All of the sudden, they’re coming back so obviously that was not good.”
The Canes got a golden chance to take the lead back a few minutes into the third as defenseman Brett Pesce found forward Jeff Skinner all alone up the ice on a beautiful stretch pass, but Greiss denied Skinner’s backhand try to keep it tied at two.
The Canes continued to press hard in the third, putting up 12 shots and some grade-A chances, but could not find the back of the net in a bid to end the game in regulation.
“I thought we controlled play for the first two periods, besides those last couple shifts there in the second,” Slavin said. “Then again in the third I thought we controlled most of the game. We had some chances to bury and we have to put the puck in the net early on.”
The Canes will be back in action at PNC Arena Thursday night when former team captain Eric Staal and the Minnesota Wild come to town.
