The NHL playoffs are in full swing and that brings us a first-round matchup from the Eastern Conference coming to you from Long Island. The Carolina Hurricanes are on the road as they take on the New York Islanders in Game 4 of their best-of-seven opening round series Sunday afternoon. We’ve seen the home team prevail in each of the three contests so far in the series. Carolina took the opening game of the series 2-1 at home Monday night and followed that with a 4-3 overtime win in Game 2 Wednesday night. New York got back into the series as they picked up a 5-1 win on home ice Friday night in Game 3 to narrow the Hurricanes’ series lead to 2-1. Will Carolina take a 3-1 series lead or will the Islanders even things up in front of their home crowd?
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Carolina’s tight checking and solid defensive zone play carried them through the first two games of the series. The Hurricanes were in the mix for most of Game 3 but things fell apart late and left them trying to regroup ahead of Game 4 of the series. Carolina went into Saturday 14th in the league in goals per game in the postseason as they put up an average of 2.33 goals per contest. The Hurricanes are tied for 5th in goals against by allowing three goals per game. Carolina is 9th with the man advantage as they cash in on 21.4% of their chances with the man advantage this postseason. The Hurricanes are 5th in penalty killing as they successfully work through 88.9% of their shorthanded situations in the playoffs.
In Game 3, Carolina was in a tight game for more than 55 minutes before things spiraled out of control in the final five, sending them to defeat. The Hurricanes held a 15-7 advantage in shots on goal in the opening period with neither team denting the twine, keeping the game scoreless after 20 minutes. In the second period, Carolina was outshot 13-9 with both teams scoring once, keeping the game even at the second intermission. After falling behind 1-0, Jesper Fast tied the game for the Hurricanes with his second goal of the postseason, shorthanded, at 16:56 with the lone assist going to Jordan Staal. The third period saw Carolina outshot 17-7 and outscored 4-0 to wind up with the defeat. Antti Raanta made 32 saves for the Hurricanes, who were outshot 37-31, in the loss. He’s likely to be between the pipes for this contest.