NEW YORK (AP) — Defensemen Brent Burns and Dmitry Orlov got Carolina off to a fast start and the Hurricanes held on to beat the New York Islanders 3-2 on Thursday night for a 3-0 lead in the first-round series.
Sebastian Aho also scored for the Hurricanes and Andrei Svechnikov had two assists. Frederik Andersen stopped 29 shots. Carolina won for the eighth time in nine games at UBS Arena, which opened for the 2021-22 season.
“We didn’t really play our way tonight, it wasn’t there,” Svechnikov said. “But we take the win and run away.”
Brock Nelson and Pierre Engvall scored for the Islanders. They are a loss away from being eliminated by Carolina in the first round for the second straight year.
Ilya Sorokin, getting the start after Semyon Varlamov went in the first two games, was pulled in the second period after giving up three goals on 14 shots. Varlamov came on and stopped all eight shots he faced.
“I thought it was a hard-fought game, there were not many chances on both sides,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy said. “We had a good push in the third. We had our chances and the puck wasn’t bouncing our way.”
Trailing 3-2 in the third period, New York pressed for the tying goal, outshooting Carolina 11-3, but couldn’t get the tying goal.
“We knew it was coming, they were going to give it everything they had,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “That’s exactly what happened but obviously Freddy came up with a couple of huge saves and that’s the difference in the game.”
With the Hurricanes leading 3-2, Andersen made a nice save falling backward on a shot by Alexander Romanov about 6 1/2 minutes in the third period. The puck lay in the paint briefly before the goalie covered it up.
Andersen made another stellar save while sitting on the ice, reaching up to grab a shot by Romanov with 5:48 left.
“One you go down you just try to steal one and see where the puck is,” he said. “You got to see it to have a chance for it to try to come up with something. Those are fun saves.”
Brind’Amour credited the goalie for always being even-keeled regardless of the situation.
“He was very, very sharp,” he said. “Obviously, the difference in the game. That’s kind of his demeanor. You can never really tell with him what kind of game it is.”
The Islanders pulled Varlamov for an extra skater with 1:55 to go, but could not get the equalizer.
“Both teams battled, sometimes you’re just a bounce away.” New York’s Kyle Palmieri said. “We just have to regroup and find a way in Game 4.”
Game 4 is Saturday in New York.
Trailing 2-0 after one period, the Islanders got on the scoreboard early in the second when Engvall took a pass in front from Anders Lee and fired a shot between Andersen’s legs.
Aho restored the two-goal lead at 7:14 as he got a pass from Svechnikov and fired a shot from the high slot past Sorokin for his second goal of the series. That ended Sorokin’s night.
Nelson brought the Islanders back within one late in the middle period. Ryan Pulock‘s shot was deflected off teammate Palmieri in front and Nelson came in and quickly put it past Andersen on the right side with 2:21 to go.
The Islanders had a 15-9 advantage on shots in the first period, but trailed 2-0 after 20 minutes. New York’s shot total in the period exceeded their total in all of Game 2 when they managed only 12.
Burns got the Hurricanes on the scoreboard first as he fired a shot from the top of the right circle that deflected off the stick of Islanders defenseman Mike Reilly and past Sorokin at 4:46.
Andersen made a stellar glove save reaching to his left on Noah Dobson‘s attempt from the right side at 9:23 on the rebound of a shot by Mathew Barzal to preserve the lead.
Orlov then beat Sorokin on the stick side from the left circle just over a minute later to increase Carolina’s lead to 2-0. It was the second straight goal by a defenseman after forwards had scored all the goals in the first two games.
The Hurricanes were without defenseman Brett Pesce because of a lower-body injury suffered on a noncontact sequence during the second period of Game 2 on Monday night. Tony DeAngelo started in his place in a pairing with Brady Skjei.
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