The Hurricanes made a statement in Elmont to take a 3-0 first round series lead over the Islanders.
It was a different venue, but the same result for the Carolina Hurricanes against the New York Islanders on Thursday night in Elmont.
When a series shifts locations for Game 3, there’s always an expectation of a new level of intensity coming for the home team, especially when they’re desperate and down in the series.
The Islanders didn’t muster a storm for the Hurricanes to weather, as the two teams traded low danger threats for a few minutes.
The Carolina line of Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Martin Necas, and Teuvo Teravainen came over the boards about four minutes in and immediately hemmed the Islanders into the zone with some clever passing and a good cycle game.
The Canes made it matter at the tail end of that shift when Brent Burns wired a shot past Ilya Sorokin, who was screened by Teravainen, to make it 1-0 for the Canes.
The early goal woke the Islanders up a bit, as the hosts got a good shift from their third line in response, but to no avail.
Frederik Andersen came up with a pair of major saves to preserve the lead, as he denied a rip from Mathew Barzal with the shoulder before lunging to grab the rebound opportunity from Noah Dobson with the glove.
That save proved to be a springboard to more for the Canes, as Andrei Svechnikov executed a flawless zone entry before peeling to the half wall and hitting a trailing Dmitry Orlov, who waited out his countryman Sorokin with a writer to the short side to make it 2-0 heading into the break.
The Islanders brought a better game with them out of the locker room for the second, and they made the Hurricanes pay for a mistake when Pierre Engvall took advantage of some open space to beat Andersen and get his team on the board.
Carolina answered back when Sebastian Aho wired a wrister past Ilya Sorokin, who looked lost for most of the night and was yanked in favor of Game 1 and 2 starter Semyon Varlamov.
The shift to Varlamov got the Isles going even more, and they broke through late in the second when captain Anders Lee scored to get New York within a goal heading into the third.
The Hurricanes did an excellent job of protecting the lead in the third period, largely preventing the Islanders from generating dangerous attacks.
The Isles found more success as their desperation level went up, and a big glove save by Andersen from the seat of his pants kept the Hurricanes ahead.
New York pulled Varlamov with 1:57 remaining in the third, but they didn’t get a shot on goal, as the Hurricanes were able to clear it several times to hang on for the win.