04/22/24 09:48:00
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04/22 21:46 CDT Aho, Martinook cap Hurricanes' late rally to beat the Islanders
for a 2-0 playoff series lead
Aho, Martinook cap Hurricanes' late rally to beat the Islanders for a 2-0
playoff series lead
By AARON BEARD
AP Sports Writer
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) --- Sebastian Aho and Jordan Martinook scored 9 seconds
apart late in the third period to help the Carolina Hurricanes complete a
comeback from three goals down to beat the New York Islanders 5-3 on Monday
night, taking a 2-0 lead in their first-round playoff series in improbable
fashion.
Aho struck first by redirecting Andrei Svechnikov's shot at the right post
behind Semyon Varlamov with 2:15 remaining to tie the game at 3. After an
Islanders giveaway on the ensuing faceoff, Martinook raced down to beat Noah
Dobson to the puck along the boards and then pushed it toward the same post
with a wraparound attempt from behind the net.
The puck banged off Varlamov's left skate and slipped into the net for the 4-3
lead with 2:06 to go, sending the Hurricanes players mobbing a jumping
Martinook amid a roof-blowing roar from a shocked home crowd.
Jake Guentzel added an empty-net score in the final minute to seal this one,
which ended with frustrations flaring for the Islanders, several scrums between
the teams and multiple players taking early walks to the locker room.
The series shifts north for the next two games, with Game 3 set for Thursday
night.
This was a brutal finish for the Islanders, who used goals from Kyle Palmieri,
Bo Horvat and Anders Lee --- the last being a forehand-to-backhand finish atop
the crease on the power play --- to take a 3-0 lead early in the second period.
And that had them poised to earn a split after losing 3-1 in Game 1 despite a
performance that left coach Patrick Roy encouraged by his team's play.
Instead, New York unraveled in crushing fashion, starting with Varlamov taking
a tripping penalty on Stefan Noesen to put Carolina on a power play. Teuvo
Teravainen converted on the man advantage by finishing a feed from Guentzel at
13:01 of the second, cutting the deficit to 3-1 and breathing life back into a
stunned-silent arena.
And from there, the Hurricanes kept the pressure on, tipping the ice toward
Varlamov with withering sustained shifts in the offensive zone. That included
both Aho and Seth Jarvis each ringing the post late in the second, and then
Guentzel in the third before Jarvis buried a cross-ice feed from Jordan Staal
to bring Carolina to within 3-2 at 10:43 of the third.
The Hurricanes finished with a 39-12 shot advantage, with Varlamov facing 16 in
the final period alone before finishing with 34 saves. New York, which had just
one shot on goal in the third period, also a goal waived off when Kyle McLean's
Jarvis-answering redirect past Andersen came with his stick high in the air.
Andersen finished with nine saves for Carolina.
___
AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and
https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
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