The Carolina Hurricanes suffered a 6-2 loss to the New York Islanders on Friday, Oct. 28 in PNC Arena.
The Canes (4-2-1) lagged behind the Islanders (4-4-0) all night, never taking the lead and looking generally sluggish after a long five-game road trip out west. Carolina surrendered odd rush after odd rush, allowing New York to stay on the front foot. The Isles also capitalized on several turnovers the Hurricanes made in their own zone.
“They did a good job of keeping their game simple,” said center Jordan Staal. “Getting the pucks out when they need to, not letting us sustain any pressure and just making us make mistakes. That’s our game and our style. That’s what we want to do and they did it to us. We were a little sloppy with the pucks a few times, a couple miscues, and they made us pay.”
The Hurricanes squandered a golden power play opportunity late in the second period that encapsulated the evening. Down 3-2 with 2:40 to go in the period, New York left wing Zach Parise went to the box for interference. Defenseman Dylan Coghlan dinged a potential game-tying goal off the post during the first 37 seconds of the power play, but the Canes just couldn’t push the puck into the net.
A delay of game penalty on Isles center Mathew Barzal gave Carolina a crucial 5-on-3 advantage for 1:23. Despite showering Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin for shots on goal, the score still stood at 3-2 going into the second intermission.
“I’ll take that all day,” said head coach Rod Brind’Amour. “We had two or three right down the pipe, we hit the post. It’s probably a different game if we put one in there, but their goalie played really well. I give him a lot of credit, he was excellent.”
The two teams traded blows over the first two periods starting with New York right wing Oliver Wahlstrom’s goal just 3:31 into the game. Wahlstrom quickly quelled the home crowd with the opening score, making the Canes play catch-up all game.
Unlike the opening 20 minutes, the second period ramped up the offensive output with four combined goals. Center Martin Nečas put Carolina on the board just under nine minutes into the second period, but the majority of the goals occurred down the stretch. Islanders left wing Matt Martin put the visitors ahead again at the 14:29 mark, but defenseman Brent Burns netted his first goal as a Hurricane to knot up the score again at 2-2.
New York right wing Josh Bailey nipped Carolina’s momentum in the bud. In his 1,000th game as an Islander, Bailey scored less than a minute after Burns to make it 3-2.
Any chance of a Canes comeback in their second game at home completely fell apart throughout the third period. Islanders center Brock Nelson would score his first two goals of the season to put the Isles up by three.
The Islanders gifted the home team with multiple golden ticket goal opportunities in the latter half of the period that the Canes could not capitalize on.
Even up on the power-play with over two minutes left, the Canes gave up a short-handed empty-net goal to Parise just 10 seconds into their man advantage.
Sorokin had a monster game with 33 saves on 35 shots against, improving his record against Carolina to 2-1 in his career.
Goaltender Freddie Andersen, on the other hand, was under constant pressure all night long. Sloppy Carolina turnovers and defensive struggles would lead to countless Islander odd-man rushes and scoring chances against the Carolina netminder. Andersen ended up with 26 saves out of 31 shots faced.
The continued excellence from the second line was one of the few positive takeaways for the Hurricanes. Right wing Andrei Svechnikov, center Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Nečas put together another solid night, accounting for one of Carolina’s two goals and posting a 24-15 Corsi advantage in 12:52 on the ice.
On the flip side, the Canes sorely missed production from its other lines. Brind’Amour broke up his top line for left wing Teuvo Teräväinen and centers Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis, flipping Teräväinen to the third line for left wing Jordan Martinook. The Hurricanes’ fourth line also failed to put much offense together, contributing to the loss.
“All four gotta get going, we can’t have any passengers,” Staal said. “My line obviously has to find ways to create more. We’ve been getting better, but there’s still more out there for myself.”
Carolina will hope for a return to form sooner rather than later as it travels to Philadelphia for another Metro division matchup against the Flyers on Saturday, Oct. 29. Puck is set to drop at 7 p.m.
