The Hurricanes debuted two new faces on Long Island on Saturday
After a whirlwind 24 hours, the Carolina Hurricanes picked up a point in the standings against a red-hot New York Islanders team with a 3-2 overtime loss at UBS Arena.
Wingers Mikko Rantanen and Taylor Hall made their team debuts after being acquired in a blockbuster three-team trade on Friday night from Colorado and Chicago respectively, and Pyotr Kochetkov turned in one of his best performances of the season between the pipes to earn the win.
Carolina got all the offense it would need in the first few minutes of the game, as Jack Roslovic broke a 12-game pointless streak with a well-placed shot that beat Marcus Hogberg high to make it 1-0.
That was quickly followed by Sebastian Aho’s 16th goal of the season when the Finn sent a pass toward the half wall that instead found Kyle MaClean’s skate and slid through the wickets of Hogberg.
A Ryan Pulock injury 15 seconds into the game left the Islanders with just five defensemen while playing their second game in as many nights, but the hosts didn’t show any ill effects as they outplayed the Hurricanes for the next 40 minutes.
The Canes took the 2-0 lead into the first intermission, but the Isles halved the lead when Alexander Romanov scored his first of the year right after a New York penalty expired. Romanov’s point shot deflected off of Sean Walker’s knee and in, and his team had some life.
New York continued to build a game throughout the second, as they dominated possession despite an inability to generate many dangerous chances.
The threats they did find were a pair of breakaways that were both snuffed out by successful aggressive poke checks by Kochetkov, which preserved Carolina’s edge at 2-1 heading into the third.
The Islanders finally found the equalizer just before the midway point of the third when Anders Lee capitalized on a misplayed rebound from Kochetkov.
The disappearance of the lead seemed to wake Carolina up, as the Hurricanes turned in some of their most dominant shifts of the game, with one from the line of Hall, Kotkaniemi, and Svechnikov nearly yielding a go-ahead goal on multiple occasions.
Neither team found the back of the net for the duration of the third, sending the game to overtime tied at two apiece.
In the extra frame, the Islanders were forced to replace Hogberg with Ilya Sorokin after an apparent injury. The Canes started with Jordan Staal, Slavin, and Brent Burns as Rod Brind’Amour likes to do to generate possession.
Just over two minutes into overtime, Brock Nelson buried a laser past Kochetkov to complete the comeback and give the Islanders another big win.
The Hurricanes’ trip through the New York metropolitan area will continue on Tuesday night when they pay a visit to the surging Rangers at Madison Square Garden.