The Carolina Hurricanes looked like an absolute wagon down the stretch in 2023-24, and nothing has changed in their Eastern Conference first-round series against the New York Islanders. Fresh off a 3-2 victory on Thursday night at UBS Arena in Long Island, the Canes have a chance to eliminate the Isles in four straight.
And although the series looks to be as good as over, Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov shared an interesting review of his team’s performance in Game 3.
“We didn’t really play our way tonight, it wasn’t there,” the Russian star explained, according to the Associated Press’ Vin Cherwoo.
“But we take the win and run away.”
Svechnikov and the Hurricanes can’t yet run back to Raleigh — they still have one more game to play in New York on Saturday afternoon. But they have an excellent opportunity to be the first team to advance to the second-round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Carolina wasn’t the better team for most of the night in New York, getting outshot 31-22 and needing a couple of huge saves from Frederik Andersen to preserve 2-0, 2-1 and 3-2 leads. The veteran was excellent again for the Canes, but the same can’t be said for the Islanders’ netminder.
In his first start of the series, Ilya Sorokin gave up three goals on just 14 shots, and was pulled after Sebastian Aho made it 3-1 nearly halfway through the second period. Although the Islanders pressed hard in both the second and third periods, they were unable to find a way to make the series close. And that’s especially true because of Andersen’s heroics.
“Andersen made a nice save falling backward on a shot by Alexander Romanov about 6 1/2 minutes in the third period. The puck lay in the paint briefly before the goalie covered it up,” wrote Cherwoo. “Andersen made another stellar save while sitting on the ice, reaching up to grab a shot by Romanov with 5:48 left. Andersen felt he got clipped by an Islanders player and that’s why he went down on the play.”
Frederik Andersen excellent again as Hurricanes push Islanders to brink
Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour praised his goaltender after the Swede came up clutch time and again in the tight victory.
“We knew it was coming, they were going to give it everything they had,” the bench boss said afterwards, per Cherwoo. “That’s exactly what happened but obviously Freddy came up with a couple of huge saves and that’s the difference in the game. He was very, very sharp. Obviously, the difference in the game. That’s kind of his demeanor. You can never really tell with him what kind of game it is.”
“I thought it was a hard-fought game, there were not many chances on both sides,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy said as his team sits on the brink of elimination. “We had a good push in the third. We had our chances and the puck wasn’t bouncing our way.”
The Islanders needed a few bounces, and didn’t get them at UBS Arena. Now, it’ll take a miracle to beat a Hurricanes team that is better both on paper and on the ice, and with a commanding 3-0 lead to boot.
The Canes will look to eliminate the Isles for the second straight year — and be the first team to book their ticket to Round 2 — when puck drops for Game 4 on Saturday afternoon.
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