RALEIGH, N.C. — Patrick Roy has spoken often of his team’s resiliency late in this season, especially when the Islanders rebounded from a 2-7-1 slide to finish the regular season on an 8-0-1 run to make the postseason.
In the wake of an epic collapse on Monday in a 5-3 Game 2 loss against the Hurricanes, Roy’s Islanders better find a reservoir of resiliency. The way they blew a game they led 3-0 will stay with them for a bit.
“It’s gonna hurt. It’s gonna hurt,” captain Anders Lee said after the loss, in which the Hurricanes tied the game with their goaltender pulled at 17:45 of the third and took the lead just nine seconds later to leave a lot of stunned looks on the visiting bench. “You’ve got to let it sink in a little bit. We have an opportunity to come back home, in our building, and take care of business.
“But I’m not there yet.”
The Islanders looked capable enough, taking that 3-0 lead with Lee scoring on a power-play backhand in tight on Frederik Andersen 3:54 into the second period. The Islanders were being outshot 15-9 at that point and doing what they’ve done well under Roy: Defending the middle of their zone hard and converting their chances at the other end. Kyle Palmieri had opened the scoring at 16:22 of the first during a four-on-four stretch, jamming a third time to get a loose puck by Andersen.
And Bo Horvat converted a one-timer off a feed from Mathew Barzal with 14.8 seconds left in the first for a 2-0 lead and a lot of air going out of PNC Arena.
But after the 3-0 goal and the expected Hurricanes push, the Islanders didn’t have enough answers. Barzal was called for a penalty, then Semyon Varlamov 2:43 later to aid Carolina’s push. Teuvo Teravainen got the Canes on the board on the second power play and the Islanders crawled to the end of the middle period, with Noah Dobson blocking a Seth Jarvis shot in the final seconds with Varlamov not yet in position.
Carolina held a 22-11 shot edge and a 73-22 attempts edge through 40 minutes.
The first half of the third was relatively settled, with the Islanders having some puck possession to at least blunt Carolina’s attack. But there were still the same problems that have plagued the Islanders all year, especially when they have the lead.
“We stopped winning those one-on-one battles,” Roy said, “and their D pinched down and we did not do a very good job along the wall to get those pucks out.”
Jarvis brought Carolina to within 3-2 with 9:17 to go after yet another failed clear. And the minutes did not tick down fast enough. The Canes pulled Andersen, who faced only one shot on goal in the third, with 2:49 to go. And Sebastian Aho was left alone to Varlamov’s left to tip in Andrei Svechnikov’s shot to tie it.
Roy said he considered calling his time out to settle his team down at 3-3. “But I had (J-G) Pageau’s line out there and Romy (Alexander Romanov) and Dobby, so I thought we’d be OK.”
Off the draw, Jordan Staal dumped the puck in and it was Dobson and Jordan Martinook going behind the Islander net. Dobson whiffed as Martinook gave a shove, the puck settled on Martinook’s stick with Varlamov anticipating the puck coming out the other side and Martinook banked it off Varlamov and in. Nine seconds and the entire series had changed.
“Just 30 seconds you’d want to have back,” Brock Nelson said.
The final shot attempts were 110-26. It wasn’t so much that the Islanders stopped playing after they went up 3-0; it was more that all their energy went to blocking shots, defending and getting pucks out of their zone rather than trying to get up the ice.
And it cost them dearly. They have two days until Game 3 at UBS Arena. They may feel like two months after the way Monday ended.
“We’re going home,” Roy said. “We need to play well in our building and win Game No. 3, that’s all.”
If only it were that simple now.
(Photo of Teuvo Teravainen celebrating his second-period goal: Cato Cataldo / NHLI via Getty Images)
