RALEIGH — For as many times as Frederik Andersen bailed out the Hurricanes in their first round series against the Islanders, his teammates were due to return the favor.
After Andersen toe-picked and fell to the ice late in the second period, leaving his net wide open for Casey Cizikas to score the tying goal just before intermission, his Hurricanes teammates picked him up in the third period.
“Freddie has been keeping us in it for this whole entire series, and things happen on the ice,” Hurricanes forward Stefan Noesen said. “I think he just fell and it goes in. You try to buckle in and try to do it for him.”
The Hurricanes did exactly that early in the third period.
Carolina defenseman Brady Skjei entered the offensive zone and took a shot from the top of the right circle. New York defenseman Alexander Romanov blocked it, but the puck bounced to the left faceoff dot and Jack Drury, who shot short side past Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov (32 saves) to give Carolina the lead at 4:36 of the third.
“I looked over at their bench and I was like, ‘Don’t be reviewing it,’” said Drury — who had his first ever playoff goal taken off the board on review last postseason — of his first career postseason tally.
Then on the ensuing faceoff, Carolina won the draw and Skjei rimmed the puck into the New York end. Varlamov circled to the back of the net to play the puck, but it instead caromed right in front of the crease.
“It hit stanchion or something. … That’s one of those lucky bounces that went our way,” Skjei said.
Noesen had just one thought as the puck came to him with the net empty.
“Don’t f–k it up.”
He didn’t, backhanding it into the vacant net for a two-goal lead and vaulting the Hurricanes to a series-clinching 6-3 win in Game 5 Monday in front of a PNC Arena crowd of 18,874 that joined his primal scream as a second round matchup against the Presidents’ Trophy-winning New York Rangers went from expected to near certainty to reality.
“We’re happy where we are right now,” Noesen added.
For as wild as the two-goals-in-eight-seconds sequence was, the first period was even more frantic.
The Hurricanes jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, scoring the fastest two goals to start a playoff game in franchise history by finding the back of the net twice in the first 3:13.
Teuvo Teravainen opened the scoring just 83 seconds in, taking a bad-angle shot from the left circle and beating Varlamov to the far side off his arm for a 1-0 lead.
Then on the game’s first power play, Andrei Svechnikov — who Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said was the Hurricanes’ best player in the series — burst up the right wing and centered a pass toward Sebastian Aho that Islanders defenseman Robert Bortuzzo redirected into the net for a 2-0 Carolina at 3:13.
“His speed, I think, really played a factor,” Hurricanes forward Seth Jarvis, who had three points in the game — including an empty-net goal — and a team-high seven in the series, said of Svechnikov. “Especially you saw it on his goal tonight, just having that outside speed.”
The veteran Islanders, however, didn’t go quietly.
New York promptly drew a penalty and needed just 11 seconds to score, with defenseman Mike Reilly’s point shot redirecting off Jordan Staal’s skate and beating Andersen to halve Carolina’s lead before four minutes had even elapsed in the game.
The Hurricanes reestablished its two-goal lead at 13:22 of the opening frame. Islanders defenseman Alexander Romanov was called for covering the puck in the New York crease, and Carolina was awarded a penalty shot.
Brind’Amour sent out Evgeny Kuznetsov, whose two slow-crawl shootout attempts after his trade to the Hurricanes failed in the regular season but worked on Tuesday to make it 3-1.
Kuznetsov lulls Varlamov to sleep and scores. 3-1 pic.twitter.com/3IxwUXswrb
— Cory Lavalette (@corylav) May 1, 2024
“We know how nasty he is,” Jarvis said. “He’s done it to us a few times. So to see it work for us, and in a moment like that, was absolutely massive.”
New York rallied again in the second period.
After Hurricanes winger Jake Guentzel lost control of the puck in the corner of the offensive zone, the Islanders transitioned up ice. Kyle Palmieri found Brock Nelson — who had beat Guentzel in the race back into the Carolina zone — trailing the play, and the New York center’s shot deflected off Carolina defenseman Jalen Chatfield and beat Andersen low at 3:47 to reduce the Hurricanes’ lead to 3-2.
Then Andersen’s stumble allowed the Islanders to tie the game.
But another Carolina quick strike pair of goals in the third period ended one New York team’s season and set up a second round matchup against the other.
“We know what they’re all about,” Brind’Amour said of the Rangers. “They’ve got immense talent, coached really well and good goaltending. What don’t they have? So we know it’s gonna be a tough matchup.”
Notes: Tony DeAngelo was injured late in Game 5 after Islanders forward Pierre Engvall slashed him on the arm on the forecheck. DeAngelo had an X-ray after the game, but Brind’Amour did not know the severity of the injury. … After struggling on faceoffs the last two games, Carolina was 41 of 69 (59.4%) in Game 5.
