Recap: Hurricanes 5, Islanders 3

The Carolina Hurricanes are supposed to be getting worse as some of their better players are traded, but they continue to defy logic and play very well.  The Canes made it three wins in a row with a 5-3 victory over the New York Islanders Saturday night at Nassau Coliseum.

After out-shooting the Capitals every period the previous night, the Hurricanes outshot the first place Islanders, 41-24 in this game, the second of a back-to-back for each club.

Jay McClement scored twice and Brad Malone added another as Carolina's fourth line had another big game.

The home team would jump out first when Michael Grabner out-raced Michal Jordan into the Carolina zone, then beat Cam Ward with a seeing eye shot.

McClement tied it up late in the period when he crashed the net and the puck went in off of his skate.  After the play was reviewed, there was no kicking motion and the goal counted.

With the score tied 1-1 after one period, the Canes then exploded for four goals in the second.

Justin Faulk got the party started with a powerplay goal to pad his team-leading stats early in the period.  Then McClement scored his second when he took advantage of a nice pass by Andrej Nestrasil.

Nikolay Kulemin made a pretty play to get past Faulk to make the score 3-2, but Brad Malone and Michal Jordan jammed home goals to put the game away.

Malone's goal came off a puck that got behind tender Chad Johnson on a Nestrasil shot and Jordan's came on another powerplay with the help of a perfect backdoor pass by Jordan Staal.

The home team would score again in the third, but Carolina hung on the rest of the way.  They flew to Chicago after the game to face the Blackhawks on Monday night.

The team is now 14-7-3 in 2015.

Game Notes:

• McClement, Nestrasil, and Malone each had a two point night.  Nestrasil now has four points in the last two games and has created a lot of traffic in front of the opponent's net.  He looks like a keeper.
• Faulk was (-2) this night but did have a powerplay goal, led the team with 24:44 of TOI, and had a team high three hits.  He played over 28 minutes the previous night.
• McClement had a team high six shots on goal followed closely by Alexander Semin and Eric Staal with five each.
• Newcomer Jack Hillen made it to the game in the nick of time and played 17 plus minutes.  Michal Jordan had a team high three blocked shots.
• Cam Ward made 21 saves on 24 shots he faced.
• Bill Peters post game audio and stat sheets