The Carolina Hurricanes are a win away from advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals. Thanks to a third-period game winner from captain Justin Williams and a pair of goals from forward Teuvo Teravainen, the Canes topped the New York Islanders 5-2 at PNC Arena Wednesday to take a 3-0 stranglehold on their second-round series.
Defenseman Justin Faulk and forward Sebastian Aho (goal, assist) also scored for the Hurricanes, who have now won five straight since a loss to the Washington Capitals in game five of that series. Defenseman Jaccob Slavin put up two assists, and now leads all players in the playoffs with 12, and is tied for the lead in points. After the Islanders erased a pair of one-goal Hurricanes leads in the first and second periods, Carolina took control with a three-goal third.
“I thought we were good all game,” said head coach Rod Brind’Amour. “It looked more like our team throughout the game. We had some mistakes and our goalie came up huge again when he had to … It felt more like what we were trying to do and then the third, we create that little turnover, get a goal and you can feel the energy just switch again. From then on I thought we were real solid.”
Making his first start of the playoffs in place of the injured Petr Mrazek, Curtis McElhinney was rock solid in net for the Hurricanes. After locking down the second half of game two in Brooklyn, McElhinney stopped 28 of 30 Islanders shots and made every timely save his team needed him to make. It was the first playoff start of the 35-year-old’s career, making him the oldest netminder in NHL history to win his first career postseason start.
“It was a lot of fun,” McElhinney said. “It was a great crowd to play in front of, great atmosphere. My ears are still ringing at this point. It was just an enjoyable thing and something I’ll cherish for the rest of my life.”
The Canes took the lead for good with 9:45 to play in the final frame on a heads-up play by Aho. The Canes’ Finnish star stole the puck from goalie Robin Lehner behind the Islanders’ net and sent a pass to Williams streaking into the slot; Williams batted it in to make it 3-2 Carolina and electrify a crowd of 19,066.
“Sebastian doing Sebastain things,” Williams said. “Hunting the puck down, knocking it out of the air and throwing it in front to me. It was probably my worst chance of the night and that one ended up going in. It’s funny how that works sometimes, obviously a big goal for us.”
After a flurry of grade-A chances to start the game, the Canes jumped in front about seven minutes in; Teravianen banged home a rebound at the side of the net on the rebound of a point shot from Slavin.
The Islanders didn’t take long to tie it up, as a power-play point shot from defenseman Devon Toews beat a screened McElhinney to make it 1-1 just 1:21 after Teravainen opened the scoring.
Rookie forward Andrei Svechnikov nearly gave the Canes the lead back in his first game back after suffering a concussion in game three against Washington, but zipped a shot off the goal post. Svechnikov did not register a point in 12:13 of ice time, but made his presence felt on both ends of the ice. Forward Jordan Martinook also returned after missing the first two games of the series with a lower-body injury.
“[Svechnikov] was awesome,” Brind’Amour said. “I wanted to play him more but I couldn’t because he was a little gassed. You could see that the game shape wasn’t quite there but he looked like a force out there. It was a huge impact for us to be able to put him in the lineup and Martinook too. Marty had a great game too. Those were two great additions.”
The Islanders had a golden chance to take the lead about nine minutes into the second period as defenseman Nick Leddy broke in alone, but McElhinney stretched out to make a miraculous save with his skate on both the initial chance and follow up from Islanders forward Jordan Eberle.
“I’m so happy for him,” Brind’Amour said. “He’s been a true professional everywhere he’s been. You cheer for guys like that. I don’t even care if you like our team or not, you cheer for guys like that. He’s put in his dues; he’s put in his time. Now he’s finally getting the chance to show it. Whether he’s 35, 25 or whatever it’s nice to see that a guy gets an opportunity and nice to see him excel.”
Carolina took a 2-1 lead with 8:02 left in the middle frame. After a strong, aggressive penalty kill off a hooking call against Faulk, forward Warren Foegele sprung Faulk for a breakaway out of the box, and Faulk gloved the puck down out of the air before roofing a backhander over Lehner for his first career playoff goal.
New York tied it back up with about six minutes left in the second on a Canes miscue; after Carolina turned the puck over at the defensive blue line, Islanders forward Josh Bailey carried the puck to the top of the circles and sniped a shot over McElhinney’s glove.
The Islanders pulled Lehner for an extra skater with a minute and change left, but Teravainen iced the game into the empty net for his second marker of the game with 57 seconds left, and Aho added an exclamation point with 4.8 on the clock after New York again pulled its netminder.
The Canes will go for the sweep in game four Friday night at PNC, and an opportunity to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the fourth time in their last four playoff appearances.
“They say the last one’s the hardest, and it always is, when the other team’s backs are against the wall,” Williams said. “We certainly don’t want to go back [to New York] but if we have to we will. We’re going to work our tails off to hopefully get it done in four.”
Right winger Sebastian Aho maintains control of the puck to score the last goal of the game with 0:05 left on the clock, Wednesday, May 1. The Canes beat the New York Islanders with home ice advantage, 5-2, and lead the series with a 3-0 advantage.
