Islanders' playoff chances take a hit with loss to Hurricanes
Seth Jarvis #24 of the Carolina Hurricanes scores a goal against Marcus Hogberg #50 of the New York Islanders during the third period at Lenovo Center on March 30, 2025 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Credit: NHLI via Getty Images/Josh Lavallee
RALEIGH, N.C. — The Hall of Fame goalie wanted a few more saves out of his netminder on Sunday.
“We can’t give four goals per game and win,” coach Patrick Roy said after the Islanders lost both matches in a weekend road back-to-back while yielding a combined 11 goals.
Their losing streak grew to five (0-3-2) with a 6-4 loss to the playoff-bound Hurricanes at Lenovo Center. Backup Marcus Hogberg — who told Newsday there were “maybe some goals I want to have back” — was in net after Ilya Sorokin started Saturday’s 5-3 road loss to the playoff-bound Lightning in which they rallied for three third-period goals after spotting the hosts a four-goal edge.
“Today, maybe start with a couple of saves,” Roy said when asked about his team’s defensive structure against the Hurricanes.
Pierre Engvall notched his first career two-goal game for the Islanders (32-31-10), who are three points behind the Canadiens for the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card spot, three points behind the Rangers, who have played one extra game, one point behind the Blue Jackets and tied with the Red Wings.
Both weekend losses may wind up mirroring the Islanders’ season as a whole: Competitive but not quite good enough without the traded Brock Nelson and the injured Mathew Barzal.
The Islanders went 1-for-5 on the power play — the Hurricanes were 1-for-4 — but looked disorganized on a four-minute chance late in the second period after defenseman Jalen Chatfield drew blood while high-sticking defenseman Alexander Romanov. It yielded Seth Jarvis’ go-ahead shorthanded goal at 17:29 on an unscreened rush.
“I was trying to be in good position,” Hogberg, who made 12 of his 24 saves in the first period, told Newsday. “I’ve got to have that back.”
Bo Horvat’s cross-ice feed to Anders Lee for a tap-in pulled the Islanders into a 4-4 tie at 4:05 of the third period, but defenseman Dmitry Orlov beat Hogberg through traffic from the blue line for the winner at 9:19.
“The only thing I saw was the release,” Hogberg said. “I lost the puck there a little bit. It’s just a tough loss.”
Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 27 shots for the Hurricanes (45-24-4), who improved to 29-8-1 at home.
“There’s a lot of frustrating things about that,” said Kyle Palmieri, whose power-play goal tied it at 2-2 at 11:27 of the first period after the Hurricanes opened the scoring with two goals within 13 seconds. “Some big plays and some big moments went the opposite way for us. There was some good pushback and resiliency, but not enough.”
Engvall’s second goal — he kept the puck and lifted a shot off an odd-man rush — was the Islanders’ third straight as they took their only lead at 1:37 of the second period.
It continued a strong run for the third line, with Engvall and Hudson Fasching on Casey Cizikas’ wings. Engvall brought the Islanders within 2-1 at 6:10 of the first period, also with a wrist shot off the rush.
“It felt good to score and to do it twice,” said the speedy Engvall, who has only eight goals and five assists in 53 games in the second season of a seven-year, $21 million deal and has been a frequent healthy scratch. “Our line was working really hard and was down there in the offensive zone a lot. That’s good, but we lost the game and we need to get points. It’s going to come down to the last games. We can’t give up.”
This game wasn’t clinched until Jarvis notched his second goal at 17:14 of the third period before Roy could pull Hogberg for an extra skater.
“The guys are giving me everything they have,” Roy said.
But the Islanders’ schedule remains grueling. They will open a three-game homestand with a rematch against the Lightning on Tuesday night. The playoff-bound Wild will visit on Friday before the Islanders host the conference-leading Capitals on Sunday.
Notes & quotes: Lee’s goal was the 287th of his career, tying him with Pat LaFontaine and Brent Sutter for sixth in team history . . . Lee matched a career high with 10 shots . . . The Islanders scored power-play goals in successive games for only the second time this season, with both times coming this month.
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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