Recap and Rank ‘Em: ‘Canes Fall to Islanders, 3-2 in Overtime

After a thrilling 8-4 victory for the Hurricanes over the Islanders in Brooklyn last night, the two teams narrowly escaped from the airport before the blizzard that has pounded the Northeastern region of the country ever since began.

The game opened with Cam Ward making a sharp stop on Joshua Ho-Sang who sprung in on a breakaway in the game’s first shift.

The period went on without much excitement until Joakim Nordstrom scored for the second time in as many nights. Lee Stempniak and Lucas Wallmark got the assists on the goal, as they won a battle along the boards and got the puck to a wide-open Nordstrom who made no mistake in beating Thomas Greiss.

Wallmark’s assist on the goal was the first point of his NHL career in only his second game.

The ‘Canes would get a chance on the power play with two minutes remaining in the period as Travis Hamonic was whistled for interference, but they were unable to get much of anything going with the man advantage and they went into the intermission with a 1-0 lead.

Shots on goal in the first period were 9-6 in Carolina’s favor.

The second period started with a flash, as Elias Lindholm took the puck from Nick Leddy at the right point of the Carolina zone, and beat all chasers to the net. He then fired the puck past the stick side of Greiss to give the Hurricanes a 2-0 lead just 40 seconds in to the period.

Carolina would get multiple opportunities to extend their lead with the power play as the second period wore on, but they were unable to find a consistent rhythm while up a man.

Carolina’s inability to capitalize on the power play would bite them in a big way, as the Islanders got two goals in less than a minute to tie the game right before the second intermission.

First, it was Josh Ho-Sang, who put home a shot from the right circle after a Nikolai Kulemin shot took a bounce off of Jaccob Slavin in front.

Jason Chimera would tie the game on what was an odd play as the puck landed in front of him right above the right circle after taking a bounce, and he made no mistake as he beat Ward high to the glove side.

The third period began with Jeff Skinner getting a breakaway opportunity off of a gorgeous stretch pass by Brett Pesce. Skinner came in and went with a move similar to the one that worked for him against Greiss in his penalty shot last night, but Greiss had the answer this time.

That play followed a trend from the second period of Greiss coming up with some huge stops to keep his team in the game.

The third period went on with the Hurricanes getting the better of the play, as the desperate Islanders appeared eager to get the game to overtime to secure at least one point.

That was until the last four minutes of the period, when the Islanders found their skating legs and forced Cam Ward to make some saves to earn his team a point as Greiss had done for them.

Ward made those saves, and the ‘Canes earned that point in the standings, as the Hurricanes went to overtime for the second consecutive home game.

The Hurricanes came in having fallen short in their last four games that had gone to overtime, and they would suffer the same fate tonight.

Just 34 seconds into the overtime, John Tavares buried a shot from the slot with the assists from Ho-Sang and Nick Leddy, and the Islanders won 3-2.

The Hurricanes are at home once again on Thursday night as Eric Staal and the Minnesota Wild come in for a visit to PNC.

Rank the Performances

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