NEW YORK — Johnny Boychuk scored the tiebreaking goal with 4:25 left Thursday night to cap a wild back-and-forth affair and lift the New York Islanders to a 6-4 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes at Barclays Center.
Boychuk scored on a slap shot from the right faceoff circle for the Islanders (10-6-2), who have won two straight.
Jordan Eberle scored an empty-netter with 1:18 left. Mathew Barzal, Cal Clutterbuck, Nick Leddy and Josh Bailey also scored for the Islanders. Goalie Thomas Greiss recorded 28 saves.
Elias Lindholm, Noah Hanifin, Derek Ryan and Sebastian Aho scored for the Hurricanes (7-6-4), who have lost two of three (1-1-1). Goalie Scott Darling made 30 saves.
A scoreless game turned frantic in the final four minutes of the first period, during which the Islanders took a 3-1 lead.
Barzal opened the scoring when he caught up to Leddy’s clearing pass just beyond center ice, swooped in upon Darling and fired a shot over his glove with 3:39 remaining.
The Islanders doubled the lead with a short-handed goal 36 seconds later, when Clutterbuck grabbed a loose puck following a faceoff deep in the New York zone and beat Darling on the breakaway.
The Hurricanes closed within 2-1 with 2:30 left, when Lindholm, stationed to the right of Greiss, redirected Aho’s shot from the right faceoff circle.
The Islanders went back ahead by two goals with 29 seconds left, when Leddy’s shot from the left faceoff circle glanced off Darling’s glove and sailed behind him.
The Hurricanes scored three unanswered goals in the second to take the lead.
Hanifin closed the gap to a goal at 2:54, when he backhanded home a pass into the crease by Jordan Staal as Greiss was caught leaning in the other direction.
Ryan tied the score with 8:41 left when he wedged himself between Nick Leddy and Ryan Pulock, and backhanded home a rebound of a shot by Brett Pesce.
The Hurricanes took their first lead with 51.6 seconds left in the period, when Aho went to one knee to the left of the net and fired the puck under a lunging Greiss.
NOTES: The Islanders scratched D Scott Mayfield, C Alan Quine and D Dennis Seidenberg. … Seven of the 18 Islanders in uniform Thursday were picked in the first round by New York: RW Josh Bailey, C Mathew Barzal, LW Anthony Beauvillier, D Calvin de Haan, RW Josh Ho-Sang, LW Brock Nelson and C John Tavares. … The Hurricanes scratched C Marcus Kruger (illness) and D Klas Dahlbeck. … Hurricanes G Scott Darling made his third straight start.
