The Islanders played much better in Wednesday’s Game 2 against the Carolina Hurricanes than they did in the series opener.
A controversial non-call in overtime resulted in the Islanders’ 4-3 loss and a 2-0 deficit in the series, thwarting what appeared to be a genuine opportunity to even the series at 1-1 heading back home.
A few minutes into overtime, Jordan Martinook of Carolina appeared to strike Scott Mayfield in the face with his stick. Mayfield fell to the ice clutching his face in response to the stick. The infraction was not called by the referees who were standing in front of the incident. The Islanders’ doom was sealed by Carolina’s use of an odd-man charge.
After the game, when asked if it was “bothersome” that the call was missed, coach Lane Lambert replied, “Yeah” and disclosed he was not given an explanation by the league or officials.
“You guys watched the game,” said Zach Parise following the game. “You saw. There is no reason for me to comment.”
Many players, including Brock Nelson, who scored the goal that gave the Islanders the lead in the third period, did not see the action in real time.
“I didn’t have a good angle on that odd-man rush,” he stated. “At this point, it doesn’t matter if I saw it.”
The missed high-stick was probably one of several missed rulings on Wednesday night. The Hurricanes were 1-for-6 on power plays, while the Islanders were 0-for-0.
In Game 2, for only the fourth time in NHL postseason history, a team had five or more power plays while its opponent had none. When asked if he had ever been a part of a game with such a large penalty differential, the Islanders’ first-year head coach paused before stating that he probably has, but none spring to mind.
Despite the infraction differential, the Islanders felt that Game 2’s performance had many positive aspects. One was their penalty kill, which only allowed one goal in six opportunities. This was their second offense. After scoring just one goal in contest 1, the Islanders clawed their way back into the contest with second-period goals from Kyle Palmieri and Mathew Barzal while trailing by two goals.
“We’ve done that a number of times this year, bend don’t break,” said Nelson. “Barzal scored a tremendous strike to give us a chance. This one is painful, but we must turn the page.”
Parise believes Carolina’s game-winning goals were the result of a pair of soft goals.
Parise stated, “We played well enough to win, and we’ll do our best to take the third one.” “You focus on the positive. We were driving the vehicle. We had a decent chance of winning the game. It didn’t happen, but I believe if you look at the game as a whole, we’ll be able to say that we did a lot of great things and just gave up a couple lucky goals. That is the distinction.”
Beginning on Friday, the Islanders will host the Hurricane for Games 3 and 4 at UBS Arena on Long Island.