RALEIGH — Even with a new coach leading their bench, the Islanders looked like the same old team Friday night in Raleigh.
New York feasted on the Hurricanes’ mistakes and then counterattacked when Carolina tried to claw its way back into the game, leading to a 6-2 win for the Islanders in front of a sellout crowd at PNC Arena.
“Once we got behind, it just felt like we tried almost too hard to make plays that aren’t there,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said, “and that fed right into what they wanted to do.”
The Hurricanes (4-2-1) in fact never led, tying the game twice but succumbing to coach Lane Lambert’s Barry Trotz-inspired structured style.
“Give them a little credit,” Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said. “I thought they did a good job of keeping their game simple and getting the pucks out when they needed to and not letting us sustain any pressure and really just kind of making us make mistakes. And that’s kind of our aim, our style. That’s what we want to do, and they did it to us.”
Carolina finally got some momentum just before the game’s midway point when Martin Necas scored his fourth goal of the season by finishing off a pretty give-and-go play with Brady Skjei to tie the game 1-1, but the Islanders (4-4-0) answered quickly each time the Hurricanes seemed to get back in the game.
The Isles scored the first of three goals in 1:57 of game time to reclaim the lead when Hurricanes defenseman Jalen Chatfield was forced into a turnover by Casey Cizikas. The puck went to Matt Martin in the high slot, and the rugged winger scored stick side on Frederik Andersen (26 saves) to give New York the lead again at 14:29 of the second.
Seventy-seven seconds later, Brent Burns got his first goal with the Hurricanes, snapping a shot through traffic that hit a body in front and got past Ilya Sorokin (33 saves) to tie the game 2-2.
But Carolina made another mistake, and New York made the Hurricanes pay.
Center Sebastian Aho’s pass through the neutral zone was intercepted by the Islanders and pushed ahead to Mathew Barzal. The New York center found Josh Bailey — playing in his 1,000th game in the NHL — at the top of the left faceoff circle, and Bailey dangled around Skjei and waited out Andersen to give the Islanders a 3-2 lead at 16:26 of the second.
“You can’t give up a goal right after we finally get back and tie it up,” Brind’Amour said.
The Hurricanes then had a chance to tie the game in the final two minutes of the second period when the Islanders were called for consecutive penalties and gave Carolina 83 seconds of a 5-on-3 power play.
Burns and Dylan Coghlan took turns teeing off on one-timers on Sorokin, with Coghlan hitting the post just 16 seconds into the two man-advantage and the Islanders even going down one broken stick, but the Hurricanes were unable to covert and entered the third period down a goal. New York’s penalty kill is still perfect on the season, denying all 28 chances by opponents this season.
“I’ll take that all day,” Brind’Amour said of the Hurricanes’ chances at 5-on-3. “We had Brent Burns (with) two or three right down the pipe, we hit the post. It’s probably a different game if we pump one in there, but their goalie played really well. I give him a lot of credit, he was excellent.”
The Hurricanes continued to make mistakes in the third, and Brock Nelson scored twice in the period to extend the lead to 5-2. The Islanders capped the scoring when Zach Parise scored into an empty net immediately after Carolina went on a late power play with 1:54 remaining.
The Hurricanes travel to Philadelphia to play the Flyers on Saturday night to complete their first back-to-back set of the season.
“The good news is they get to go right back at tomorrow,” Brind’Amour said.
Notes: Before the game, the Hurricanes traded defenseman Ethan Bear and forward Lane Pederson to Vancouver. … Oliver Wahlstrom opened the scoring off a feed from Barzal. … Teuvo Teravainen was demoted off the top line, flipping places with Jordan Martinook to stop the third period, and finished the game minus-3. … Martinook, who assisted on Burns’ goal finished the night with a 91.67% Corsi For percentage (22-2).
