You’ve seen the Hurricanes roll into UBS Arena and overwhelm the Islanders, and you’ve seen it so many times that their 2-0 lead inside of four minutes on Thursday night felt like the start of something embarrassing.
That it was instead the first act of a pulsating 60 minutes of hockey is something the Islanders might take heart in. That it ended up making the difference in the end, that they failed to play a full 60 minutes and that they still haven’t beaten the defending-champion Hurricanes in 22 months are what they ought to regret bitterly.
The Islanders surely thought they had this on their sticks after grabbing the momentum late in a second period that was as good of hockey as they’ve played all season. Instead they’ve lost consecutive games in regulation for the first time this season, losing 5-3 on a night where their best looked good enough, had they not started slow and faded fast.
Instead of succumbing to Carolina’s relentless forecheck as they did each time these two teams met last season, the Islanders counterpunched.
Their fourth line was physical and up ice; the second line put up two goals and the third line produced chance after chance on the rush. Semyon Varlamov, who looked at risk of getting pulled after allowing two goals on the first three shots he saw, recovered to stop 34 on the night including a 10-bell diving save on Sean Walker’s one-timer late in the second.
They played fast, intense and emotional hockey against an opponent where anything less would have meant getting swept away.
The game rose to another level late in the second when Victor Eklund tied it at three with a high-slot one-timer from Brayden Schenn. That was at 17:13 in the period, and by the intermission, Varlamov and Brandon Bussi had traded terrific saves to keep the game tied.
The first reason as to why the tie never broke in the Islanders’ favor was their power play. It was 0-for-4 on the night and of their four chances, the Islanders didn’t even generate good looks on three of them, with inconsistent-at-best entries halting their momentum. At one point, Carolina was given a three-on-one shorthanded rush.
At even strength too, though, the momentum the Islanders generated in the second dissipated in the third. They struggled to break out, and the ice started to tilt against them.
By the time William Carrier knocked in a rebound with 5:08 to go to put the Canes ahead 4-3, Carolina had started to take on an air of inevitability.
Jalen Chatfield’s desperation heave that landed in the back of an empty Islanders’ net with under a minute left only confirmed it.
In those first few minutes, the Islanders looked disjointed defensively with three players trailing Jackson Blake after his drop pass to Logan Stankoven who promptly scored after 57 seconds. Matthew Schaefer was then caught behind the play when Jesperi Kotkaniemi deflected Jordan Martinook’s shot off the rush, the first of two goals against in which No. 48 was partially culpable, with a comedy of Islanders errors also leading to Andrei Svechnikov’s 3-2 goal in the second.
Between those moments, though, Schaefer helped make up for it. He created the Islanders’ opener by circling the zone and shooting against his body for Mitchell Chaffee’s tip-in.
Their second was all Schenn, who saw an opportunity to beat Bussi on a wraparound and took it, tying the game at two 5:44 into the second.
Indeed, the Islanders could play with these guys.
Just not for long.
