The Carolina Hurricanes have shown imperfections, but they’re making magic

Jonny Lazarus
Jonny Lazarus
The Carolina Hurricanes have shown imperfections, but they’re making magic
Credit: Dennis Schneidler-USA TODAY Sports

Game 3 wasn’t easy for the Carolina Hurricanes by any means, but the scoreboard still worked out in their favor. Suddenly, the Canes are just one win away from advancing to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. 

It was the same story we’d seen before. The New York Islanders had their moments and kept things close, but the Hurricanes prevailed again.

“Thank god we scored we the first couple of goals, that helped us for sure,” said Andrei Svechnikov, who registered two assists. 

“If you go back in those first two games, you have to grind away to score goals, but we’ve had to ruin their neutral zone and try to make a play. It was successful tonight.”

After sitting on the bench as the backup for the past month, Ilya Sorokin got his first postseason start in Game 3. Sorokin wasn’t even in the home team’s locker room for the media availability. Still, his disappointment in himself was evident after he was pulled in the second period at the 7:14 mark. Sorokin allowed three goals against on 14 shots faced, and while you can’t blame him for all of it, those were goals he certainly would have liked to have back. 

“We win and we lose as a team, so I’m not gonna go there. But what I’m gonna say is, sometimes, we make changes as a coach because we feel we just want to change the momentum of the game,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy said.

On the flip side, what Frederik Andersen has been able to do for the Hurricanes has been nothing shy of remarkable. 

This was his first time playing three straight games since the 2023 playoffs, but it didn’t look that way. 

“I don’t get impressed by him anymore, he does it every night,” Jordan Martinook said. “I don’t think I’ve seen a goalie as calm as he is in the net. We could be under siege and he’s making save after save, but it just doesn’t look like he’s ever breathing heavy.” 

Andersen has made a few highlight-reel saves already in this series, but the one he made on Alexander Romanov with 5:45 remaining in the game to keep his team up by one goal was remarkable. 

“Obviously, that’s really difficult to see,” Andersen said. “Once you go down – you just try to battle still and see where the puck is. You have to see it to have a chance for it and I got my glove up, those are fun saves.”

The difference in the net was the ultimate factor of this game. Andersen’s calming presence boosted the Hurricanes, but a lackluster performance from Sorokin held the Islanders back. 

The scariest thing for the Islanders, who now find themselves down 0-3, is that the Hurricanes didn’t even play their best game. The Islanders outshot the Hurricanes 11-3 in the final frame and had some legitimate opportunities to tie and force overtime. It was a struggle for Carolina to close out that game, but they did.

“I feel like we didn’t really play our way against them tonight. It wasn’t there, but we’ll take the win and find a way,” Svechnikov added. 

Down 0-3, time is ticking for the Islanders, who just squeezed into a playoff spot with a late-season push. It doesn’t help that Andersen has improved to 3-0 with a .922 save percentage and a 2.01 goals-against average. If New York is going to get back into this, they need Andersen to have a rare off night. 

The Hurricanes are 7-2 with a chance to close out an opponent over the past five years, and they will have the chance to improve that to 8-2 on Saturday afternoon and sweep the series.

Recently by Jonny Lazarus

Keep scrolling for more content!
19+ | Please play responsibly! | Terms and Conditions apply