The Carolina Hurricanes were far and away the better team in their season opener, but could not come up with two points in a 2-1 overtime loss to the New York Islanders at PNC Arena Thursday night.
The Canes (0-0-1) controlled play for most of the game, outshooting the Islanders (1-0-0) 41-16 but being stymied again by goaltender Thomas Greiss. Forward Jordan Staal scored the team’s lone goal, and goalie Petr Mrazek stopped 15 of 16 shots.
“I thought it was a good game by our guys,” head coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “I thought we did exactly what we wanted to do. Unfortunately, we didn’t score, and that was obviously lacking there. But I thought we created offense. We had a few turnovers in our own end, a little sloppy. Our goalie played great when he had to. Petr kept us in it. I thought we just kept going and going and going. … I think if we build on that, for me, if we play that way every night, then I think we’ll have a pretty good chance.”
With the Islanders on a power play to start overtime, forward Josh Bailey one-timed a pass from forward Matt Barzal past Mrazek for the win.
Brind’Amour pulled Mrazek with over three minutes to play, and it paid off. With 1:35 to play, defenseman Dougie Hamilton launched a rocket from the point that deflected in off Staal in front to tie the game at one. The goal survived a lengthy video review process for possible goalie interference.
“We were kind of rolling round,” Staal said. “Pretty much Dougie just made a good, quick shot. He’s got a great release. We were fortunate to finally get a good bounce and it just went off my leg and in.”
The Canes got a bad break late in regulation, as forward Micheal Ferland was whistled for tripping with three seconds left, leading to an Islanders 4-on-3 powerplay to start overtime that ultimately won them the game.
The Canes got a couple golden chances on an early first-period power play, but shots off the crossbar and goal post by defenseman Justin Faulk and rookie forward Andrei Svechnikov kept the game scoreless. The team finished 0-3 on the power play despite a plethora of scoring chances.
“Every power play we had two grade-A [chances],” Brind’Amour said. “You want to have one every power play. We had two or three posts, and Jordan had one on the back door just wide-open net.”
In his Hurricanes debut, Mrazek did not see a ton of action, but still made some timely saves when the team needed it.
“They did a great job,” Mrazek said. “I think we played really well defensively. We got the pucks out of our zone and that made our lives easier.”
The Islanders jumped on top 9:27 into the second period; forward Valtteri Filppula cashed in on a flubbed exit pass from Hamilton to forward Jordan Martinook to make it 1-0.
The Canes continued to rack up chance after chance in the middle frame, including another shot off the post by Svechnikov, who hit two in the game, but could not get a puck past Greiss until the extra-attacker tally.
“I see that I’ve got to get [Svechnikov] out there more,” Brind’Amour said. “You can just see the confidence building since day one of training camp to now. He wants the puck.”
The Hurricanes will be back in action Friday night against the Blue Jackets in Columbus. Despite not getting the result it wanted Thursday, the team feels it has mostly positives to take away from a strong effort in game number one.
“They know they played a good game,” Brind’Amour said. “You look yourself in the mirror and you play your butt off, then you can walk out of here feeling good about it. That’s really what the message is. I just hate it for the people that came in here expecting a win and we all expected a win. Sometimes it doesn’t work out that way and hockey’s not always fair. We were the better team tonight; it just didn’t work out that way.”
New York Islanders center Mathew Barzal maintains possession of the puck despite pressure from Carolina Hurricanes left wing Jordan Martinook on Thursday, Oct. 4 in PNC Arena. The Hurricanes lost their season home opener against the Islanders 2-1 in overtime.
