Recap: Islanders skate past Hurricanes in 4-1 beatdown

The Carolina Hurricanes saw their three-game winning streak snapped in a listless performance in Brooklyn as they fell to the New York Islanders 4-1. In falling behind early, the Canes never got a chance to establish their play, and the Islanders continued their dominance of the Canes on the season at 2-0-1.

The Canes quickly were put in position to chase the game as Valtteri Filppula danced his way past three Canes defenders as well as a lunging Scott Darling before backhanding the first goal of the game in less that four minutes into action. Though both teams were playing the back-end of a back-to-back, the Islanders’ legs appeared more fresh for the bulk of the contest, never looking back after Anthony Beauvillier deposited a tap-in from a beautiful feed from Josh Bailey at 9:01 of the first period.

Saturday night represented a rare off night from Jaccob Slavin, as he and his defensive partner Dougie Hamilton each posted a minus-2 rating, repeatedly allowing scoring opportunities on Darling, who continued his less than stellar play to open the season. The second period, and the remainder of the game, saw Rod Brind’Amour continually shuffle his lines in search of some offensive pop. While Carolina was able to control action for much of the second period, they were unable to tally on the scoreboard, and when Josh Bailey snapped one under the blocker-side arm of Darling with 6:43 left in the second, what game the Canes had built disappeared.

In the third period, Carolina continued to grow frustrated with the physical Islanders and their apparent nemesis, Thomas Greiss in net, as the Isles consistently took time and space away from the Canes on the offensive end. Adam Pelech ended all doubt as he entered the offensive zone, and wristed his second goal of the season cleanly past Darling on the glove side from the right slot. Finally, at 4-0, Carolina was at last able to muster something offensively as they earned a power play and during a wild scramble, Lucas Wallmark found Justin WIlliams who slammed one into a yawning net with 6:37 left to finish the scoring at 4-1. Greiss was again solid, though he faced little sustained pressure. He stopped 26 shots on his way to his third win against the Canes this season.

Carolina will look to get back on the winning track in Montreal on Tuesday, returning home for a day off and a Monday practice before leaving for Quebec in the afternoon.