*Photo from the Press Democrat*
Carolina leads series 3-2
We might just have a series here. Pierre Engvall had a goal and an assist, Mathew Barzal added the game winning goal, and the New York Islanders defeated the Carolina Hurricanes with a 3-2 victory on Tuesday night in Raleigh.
Needing a win to stay alive in the playoffs, the Islanders got it done with a win on the road, forcing a game 6 back in their building. Engvall and Brock Nelson had multi point games with each recording a goal and an assist, while 3 other players picked up a point.
Islanders head coach Lane Lambert said that "They come out hard in this building. We knew they were going to come out hard. We knew Sorokin would have to make a few saves, and he did. There was no, for lack of a better term, panic in our game. We just made sure that we stuck to our plan. We knew we'd need a couple of saves going home, but certainly we did that. We just played pretty steady and pretty solid and we battled."
The only goal of the first period came from the Islanders. It was Engvall who did the honors, scoring 10:27 into the game to make it a 1-0 score, assisted by Nelson. 3:16 into the second period, Nelson scored his own goal, doubling the lead to 2-0 on his second goal of the playoffs, with assists from Engvall and Kyle Palmieri.
Later in the second, Paul Stastny got the Hurricanes on the board, scoring his second goal of the playoffs to cut the deficit to 2-1. Barzal then scored in the final two minutes of the period to get the goal back for the Islanders, making the score 3-1. Sebastian Aho scored in the 3rd period for the Hurricanes to make it a 3-2 game, but the Hurricanes couldn't score again.
Islanders captain Anders Lee said that "I think you've seen this from this group a lot this year. It's a resilient group. You know, our road just to get in wasn't that easy, we had to pull ourselves out of a hole after some tough stretches, but we believe in one another, we believe in this group and what we can do and how we can play. And that was no different coming into this evening."
Getting the start in net for the Islanders was Ilya Sorokin, who came up with the season saving win. Sorokin stopped 34 of the 36 shots he faced from the Hurricanes in the game, posting a .944 save percentage.
Starting in between the pipes for the Hurricanes was Antti Raanta, who couldn't secure the series clinching win at home. Raanta turned aside 19 out of the 22 shots on goal the Islanders had, recording a .864 save percentage in the loss.
Aho said of the loss to extend the series that "It's supposed to be hard this time of year. We were ready for a long series. It's no big deal. Obviously, just go back to Long Island and try to do it another night there."
Up next, game 6 of the series goes back to Long Island. The Islanders once again need to win to extend their season, while the Hurricanes need a win to secure a spot in the second round.
Comments
Post a Comment