The Carolina Hurricanes received more reminders Thursday night that Frederik Andersen is the goalie they hope to ride through a long playoff run.
The New York Islanders might have learned too late that Semyon Varlamov is their only option in net.
The Hurricanes will look to complete a four-game sweep of their Eastern Conference first-round series on Saturday afternoon when they play Game 4 against the Islanders in Elmont, N.Y.
Anderson made 11 of his 29 saves in the third period to lift Carolina to a 3-2 victory over New York on Thursday. The win gave the Hurricanes a commanding 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Andersen made his most impressive save with 5:45 remaining in the third period. He was clipped by Islanders captain Anders Lee and fell to the ice yet still managed to reach up and glove a shot by Alexander Romanov.
Andersen has stopped 71 of 77 shots this series for a save percentage of .922. He is the first goaltender in franchise history to win his first three starts in a postseason since Mike Liut led the Hartford Whalers to four straight wins to open the 1986 playoffs.
“It was an unbelievable save,” Hurricanes right winger Andrei Svechnikov said of Andersen’s stop of Romanov. “I don’t even know what to say. Just so important. He’s been the best player for us out there and we believe in him and we’ve got confidence (in him).”
The Islanders and head coach Patrick Roy will have little choice but to support Varlamov, who went 7-1-0 in his final eight regular-season starts and stopped 57 of 63 shots in the first two games against the Hurricanes before Ilya Sorokin drew the start on Thursday.
But Sorokin was pulled after allowing three goals in the first 27:14 of the game. Varlamov stopped all eight shots he faced for the Islanders, who pulled within a goal after Brock Nelson scored at 17:39 of the second. They failed to net the equalizer, however.
Roy said Friday afternoon that Varlamov will start Game 4.
“I’m going to say this: We win and we lose as a team, so I’m not going to go there,” Roy said Thursday night when asked about the decision to pull Sorokin. “What I’m going to say is we sometimes make a change as a coach because we feel like we just want to change the momentum of the game. And we did that.”
The Hurricanes are aiming to reach the second round for the fourth straight season, Carolina is 7-2 in potential clinching games since the spring of 2019.
“We just play our game — go on the forecheck hard and try to grind (to) make them tired and they’re going to make mistakes,” Svechnikov said. “We’ve got the talent in the locker room.”
Only four NHL teams have won a best-of-seven series after falling into a 3-0 hole. The 1975 Islanders were the second to do so when they stormed back against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the quarterfinal round.
“There’s been, obviously, teams that have overcome this in the past and I think we have such a resilient group here that everybody still believes we can do this,” center Bo Horvat said of the Islanders, who were five points out of a playoff spot on March 31 before finishing the regular season on an 8-0-1 kick.
“Every time we’ve been counted out or down, we just find a way to kind of overcome that and prove people wrong and prove ourselves right. And I think we have a great opportunity again to do that.”
–Field Level Media
