Islanders shut out by Hurricanes in largest defeat of season
Islanders' Pierre Engvall (18) skates by as the Carolina Hurricanes celebrate a goal by Jordan Martinook, during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Raleigh, N.C., Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. Credit: AP/Karl B DeBlaker
RALEIGH, N.C. — Special teams were surprisingly not the biggest difference in this blowout loss.
The Hurricanes certainly had the special-teams’ advantage. But the crux of the Islanders’ problems in Tuesday night’s ultra-discouraging 4-0 loss at Lenovo Center that marked their largest margin of defeat this season was an inability to finish their chances while playing way too laxly in failing to help goalie Ilya Sorokin defend his crease.
“They throw a lot of pucks to the net from everywhere and they get you running around,” Casey Cizikas said. “They find those open areas. We’ve just got to do a good job of being aware of that and closing on those guys. I thought we had a lot of good chances tonight. It’s frustrating because, overall, I didn’t think it was a bad game. They capitalized on their opportunities and we didn’t.”
The Islanders (12-14-7), shut out for the fifth time despite outshooting the hosts 32-29, are going the wrong way in a so-so Eastern Conference. They’ve lost the first two games of this three-game road trip that concludes Saturday night in Toronto, giving up a combined nine goals.
“We need to start winning games,” defenseman Ryan Pulock said. “We’re getting guys healthy. We have a full lineup. We need to find a way to win these games. It might be somewhat early but there needs to be some urgency because these games are really important.”
How much urgency?
“A lot,” Brock Nelson said.
Marcus Hogberg replaced Sorokin (19 saves) from his ninth straight start — Semyon Varlamov (lower body) remains on injured reserve — to start the third period.
Pyotr Kochetkov earned his first shutout of the season for the Hurricanes (20-10-1), who are 13-4-0 at home and have the NHL’s third-ranked power play and penalty kill. The Islanders are ranked 32nd — last — in both those categories.
“That’s a team that does a really good job around the net and they were better than us,” coach Patrick Roy said. “The forwards were around the pucks and we lost those battles around the net. They also did a good job in front of their net boxing out.
“It’s time for us to be resilient. We did some good things out there. We outshot them, which is something that’s pretty tough to do in this building. So we must have done something good at some point.”
Just not nearly enough.
And, yes, it started with the Islanders yielding Andrei Svechnikov’s power-play goal as he got to the crease to push the puck between Sorokin’s pads to open the scoring at 5:47 of the first period, the eighth straight game they’ve allowed the first goal.
“What’s frustrating is giving up goals shorthanded,” Roy said. “I know it was a bad-angle shot and a jam. That gave them some momentum. Right after that, they had a flurry of shots.”
The Hurricanes were 1-for-2 on the power play while the Islanders, playing their first game in the building since being eliminated in Game 5 of the first round on April 30, went 0-for-1.
An open Jordan Martinook knocked in the rebound of Jordan Staal’s initial shot to make it 2-0 at 8:21 of the first period. Tyson Jost got around Cizikas to the crease to make it 3-0 at 11:13 of the second period and Eric Robinson fed Sebastian Aho on a two-on-one with defenseman Dennis Cholowski caught up ice for the final goal with 15.1 seconds left in the second period.
Meanwhile, Hudson Fasching went wide with a shot on a first-period two-on-one and lifted a shot over the crossbar from in tight in the second period. Kochetkov stoned Anders Lee at the crease in both the second and third periods.
“We have to be better,” Nelson said. “We have to win games.”
Notes & quotes
Nelson played in his 873rd game, moving past Clark Gillies for fifth on the Islanders’ all-time list…Anthony Duclair (lower body/long-term injured reserve) again participated with the team in the morning skate but missed his 28th game. Roy said he has been medically cleared.…Bo Horvat was back in the lineup following a one-game absence after having his hand slashed…Left wing Matt Martin and defensemen Isaiah George and Grant Hutton were the healthy scratches
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
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