The New York Islanders have been eliminated by the Carolina Hurricanes in the playoffs in each of the last two seasons.
On Saturday afternoon, the Hurricanes can nudge the Islanders another step toward making it less likely they’ll have to worry about the playoffs next spring.
The free-falling Islanders will look to snap their skid when they host the Hurricanes in the first battle of longtime rivals this season in Elmont, N.Y.
Both teams were off Friday after playing at home Thursday, when the Islanders fell to the Seattle Kraken 5-2 and the Hurricanes beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-3.
The Islanders’ Eastern Conference-worst 18th loss of the season might have been their most disappointing defeat yet. The Kraken led 4-0 after two periods despite collecting just 13 shots.
New York, which has been outscored 45-24 in the third period and overtime this season, scored twice to cut the gap in half before Jaden Schwartz iced the win by scoring an empty-netter with 2:40 left.
A crowd of 14,877 — more than 2,000 shy of the 17,255-seat capacity at UBS Arena — was muted until booing the Islanders off the ice following the most lopsided defeat of the season for the hosts.
New York has lost 10 of 13 (3-5-5) to fall into last place in the Metropolitan Division, though it ended Thursday just two points out of the Eastern Conference’s final wild-card spot.
“I understand our fans were (ticked) off,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy said. “I’d be (ticked) off as well. Nobody was very happy and they deserve to not be happy. But at the same time, our guys were trying. We just didn’t have our best game. We got outplayed and they played better than us.”
The mood of the Hurricanes — who knocked out the Islanders in a six-game Eastern Conference first-round series in April 2023 before winning a five-game first-round set this April — was better after they snapped a season-worst three-game losing streak Thursday against the Avalanche.
Seth Jarvis scored the go-ahead goal 4:09 into the second period, and Jack Roslovic put Carolina ahead 3-1 just 2:32 later. Jarvis’ goal gave the Hurricanes their first lead since their previous victory, a 4-3 win over the New York Rangers on Nov. 27.
The Hurricanes, who were outscored 16-5 during their losing streak, limited the Avalanche to just 14 shots in the first 54-plus minutes Thursday before Colorado collected five shots and twice pulled within a goal over the final 5:47.
Carolina center Martin Necas scored with 2:11 left to extend the lead to two goals before another Avalanche goal. But Carolina right winger Andrei Svechnikov ended the visitors’ comeback bid by scoring an empty-netter with 16 seconds remaining.
“It didn’t faze them, they just kept playing,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “The way it’s gone the last few games, it could have maybe gone a different direction, but it didn’t.”
–Field Level Media
