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The Carolina Hurricanes missed out on an opportunity to finish off their first round series at home last night, losing 3-2 to the New York Islanders in Game 5.
With Jack Drury out of the lineup, Mackenzie MacEachern suited up again and Derek Stepan came back into the lineup.
While the Hurricanes did come out as the better team through much of the first period, it was the Islanders who scored first, with Pierre Engvall taking a pass in-close to beat Antti Raanta midway through the opening frame. It did look like the Hurricanes evened the game later in the first period on a power play though, with Stefan Noesen burying a nice pass from Sebastian Aho. However, the goal was called back on an offside challenge due to a zone entry that happened 22 seconds before the goal, and Carolina remained down heading into intermission.
Brock Nelson then extended the lead early in the second period, after a shot hit Sebastian Aho in the face, but Nelson was able to whack it out of mid-air and in. While Paul Stastny did bring Carolina back to within one later in the frame, a turnover from Martin Necas only minutes later resulted in an odd-man rush the other way, where Mathew Barzal beat Raanta, making it a 3-1 game through 40 minutes.
The Hurricanes put together another good period in the third frame though, outshooting New York 12-5. Then halfway through the period, Seth Jarvis made a nice play to take the puck off Adam Pelech behind the net, before feeding Aho in front, who cut the lead to one. Despite the Hurricanes pressing afterwards though, that's as close as they were able to come, and ended up falling 3-2.
It’s another case of the Hurricanes playing well enough to win, outshooting New York by a huge 36-22 margin, but just not being able to capitalize.
Carolina also went 0-for-4 on the power play, though Noesen’s goal would’ve changed that. Still, it’s a case we’ve seen so many times before, with the Hurricanes playing well enough to win and getting their chances, but just not being able to pull out a win.
It also doesn’t help that the team hasn't necessarily had stability within their forward group. The losses of Teuvo Teravainen, and then Jack Drury, have forced the team to keep mixing up lines, where we’re seeing combinations now that didn’t play together much, or at all, throughout the regular season.
Another issue has been that Carolina’s defense isn’t necessarily contributing as much as they had been. While Brent Burns is averaging an assist per game against the Islanders, Jaccob Slavin has the only goal from the defense group in the playoffs, while Brady Skjei and Brett Pesce have been limited to a single assist and Shayne Gostisbehere has gone without a point. With the forward group’s offensive ability so limited with the injuries, Carolina is counting on more offense from the blue line and haven’t gotten it to this point.
Despite the loss though, you have to feel pretty good about the Hurricanes’ chances. They’ve been the clear better team through the last two games and we know they can win in New York. They’ve got three tries at finishing off the Islanders, but if they let the series come back to Raleigh for Game 7, we know anything can happen.
Game 6 is set for Friday night.
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