RALEIGH — The Hurricanes scored with 2.5 seconds left to force overtime and salvage a point, but Mathew Barzal’s seventh goal of the season in overtime gave the visiting Islanders a 5-4 win on Thursday.
Jalen Chatfield, Jordan Staal, Jack Drury and Sebastian Aho scored for Carolina, while Pyotr Kochetkov made 11 saves in the loss.
Three observations
1. It was a tough night for Seth Jarvis, who made mistakes on both of Carolina’s first two power plays — negating the first with a hooking penalty and turning the puck over on the second, allowing a 2-on-1 rush that ended with Simon Holmstrom tying the game 2-2 with a shorthanded goal at 15:59 of the second period — and then turned the puck over leading to Mathew Barzal’s game-winner in overtime.
“I screwed us pretty bad there. The power play one’s on me,” Jarvis said. “I gotta make a play there. I know he’s reading it, and I just didn’t think and made it too easy for him.
“And then overtime, (Aho) makes a great pass. Nine times out of 10, that’s a shot, I know it’s a shot, an elementary school play that you shoot that every time. I try to make a little extra play, get too cute and screw us in the end. So a lot of it comes down to me and individual plays. But we had that one in our grip. l thought we played a good game, just a couple mental errors screwed us.”
2. Staal showed up at Thursday’s morning skate with a new look: gone were his long golden locks, replaced with a closely cropped haircut.
“I was so hot on the ice with all my goals and assists, so it’s tough to let it go,” Staal, who came into the game with one goal and five assists, said jokingly. “So it’s tough to let it go, but I’m trying to change it up. Maybe it’ll give me some good vibes.”
It seemed to do just that.
Early in the second period, Jordan Martinook fired a bad-angle shot from the corner in the Islanders zone and Staal crashed the net, beating Bo Horvat to the front and banging in a rebound at 2:01 to give Carolina a 2-1 lead.
Staal was also right in the mix on the tying goal at the end of regulation, whacking a fluttering shot at the net that Aho was able to poke in with 2.5 seconds left to force overtime.
“It kind of bounced to me and, I mean, I muffined it,” Staal said. “I think Fishy got a good jab on it. Those’re usually how it works for 6-on-5.”
3. Penalties again played a big role in the game. Staal went to the box at 5:11 of the third period with the game tied 3-3 after he jumped up to glove down the puck and knocked it over the glass.
“I obviously was trying to knock it down and it just hit off the outside of my hand,” he said. “Pretty hard to hit it out of the (rink). But obviously I wasn’t trying to do that. They said it’s a cut-and-dry rule, which it is what it is.”
Brind’Amour — who scored the winning goal on the power play after Buffalo defenseman Brian Campbell shot the puck over the glass in Game 7 of the 2006 Eastern Conference final — conceded the call was “black and white” but still wasn’t thrilled with it.
“They need to change those rules,” he said. “He’s clearly not trying to knock it out, he’s just trying to stop the puck that’s coming at him and it cost you the game, right? It’s kind of crazy.”
The Islanders scored on the power play to take a 4-3 lead when Kyle Palmieri knocked down the puck and then swept it past Kochetkov. Carolina challenged, saying Palmieri had high-sticked the puck, but he goal stood and Carolina was assessed another delay of game penalty.
“We messed up, to be honest,” Brind’Amour said of challenging the call. “They thought it was a high stick, and clearly it wasn’t.”
The Hurricanes also felt several too many men on the ice infractions — Carolina was called for one with 6:30 left in regulation — were missed against the Islanders, including a glaring one in overtime.
“They had one in overtime, there were tons of ’em that could’ve went the other (way),” Brind’Amour said. “That’s hockey.”
Number to know
8 — Shot attempts for the Islanders in the second period, yet they scored twice and turned a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead. Holmstrom’s shorthanded goal was New York’s first shot of the period, and for the game Carolina outshot the Isles 43-16 and held a 75-29 edge in shot attempts at 5-on-5.
In two games against the Islanders this season, the Hurricanes, at all strengths, have a 197-77 advantage in shot attempts and 90-41 shots on goal edge, with both teams scoring eight times. The teams have split two overtime games.
Plus
Dmitry Orlov, Hurricanes defenseman — Orlov and Jalen Chatfield continue to prove themselves as a pairing. Chatfield opened the scoring with his second goal of the year and Orlov picked up an assist. Orlov was also plus-2 in the game, making him plus-7 in his last five games.
After starting the season with a minus-11 in the first seven games of the season, he’s clawed back to respectability at minus-4.
Minus
Pyotr Kochetkov, Hurricanes goalie — Kochetkov had a chance to solidify his hold on the No. 1 job after winning consecutive starts. Instead, the rookie goalie allowed five goals on just 16 shots, a few of them questionable.
“He knows he’s gotta have a couple saves,” Brind’Amour said of Kochetkov. “That’s the difference. You can’t go through a game without giving up a couple Grade-A opportunities. So we’ve just gotta get a (save on a) few of those. And he will. He has — he did it the other night. We’ve just got to get that consistency in that position, and then I think we’re in really good shape.”
They said it
“Those are the tough games when you’re doing everything right and nothing — you’re getting zero reward out of it. And to stick with it, that’s positive.”
— Rod Brind’Amour, Hurricanes coach
