Isles fight hard but lose in Game 5
The Islanders fought back from down 2-0 and 3-1 to cut the score to three points late in the half, but their valiant effort crumbled with eight seconds left in the third.
Alexander Romanov blocked Brady Skjei's shot, but the puck bounced off the stick of Jean-Gabriel Pageau as he tried to clear it, and Jack Drury converted it to give Carolina a 4-3 advantage. . Eight seconds later, a Canes dump-in hit the boards and bounced badly, catching Semyon Varlamov from the crease, which Stefan Noesen took advantage of. A similar situation occurred at the end of Game 2, making it the second time in the series that the Isles gave up two goals within 10 seconds.
“It's tough to lose a game like that,” Lee said. “We were fighting all night. We believed in what we were doing and we believed we could win this hockey game. And those two bounces were hard to swallow. It was difficult.”
The night started off tough for the Isles. Just 1 minute 23 seconds into the game, Teuvo Teravainen's shot from a sharp angle bounced off Varlamov's left shoulder. With the man advantage, Andrei Svechnikov hit a shot to double the Hurricanes' lead. The shot unfortunately hit Robert Bortuzzo's stick and went into the goal.
Trailing 2-0, the Islanders used Mike Riley's long shot from the point to beat Frederik Andersen 11 seconds into the power play, building a man advantage and narrowing the gap to 2-1, but the Canes regained the advantage with a penalty from Evgeny Kuznetsov. Shoot goal.
The Islanders trailed 21-4 and then 3-1 after the first 20 minutes, but the Islanders were able to settle it in the second period. Brock Nelson took a shot in the slot and bounced it off Jalen Chatfield's stick, giving Anderson five holes to make it a one-goal game.
The Isles appeared to grab a rare break as Andersen slipped in at the crease, leaving Zikas with open ice in the slot. With 22 seconds left in the second game, he didn't hesitate to deposit the puck and score the tying goal.
Hope vanished after just eight seconds, with Seth Jarvis filling an empty net at 18:21, but the locker room was full of pride and class that never gave up through the ups and downs of the season.
“It's been a bumpy ride,” Kyle Palmieri said. “But realistically, we had a chance to compete, make the playoffs and win the Stanley Cup. I'm proud of everyone here.”
