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The Carolina Hurricanes are heading to the second round of the playoffs for the third straight year, following a 2-1 overtime win against the New York Islanders in Game 6 last night.
What a moment pic.twitter.com/ZWgkaVEBpP
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) April 29, 2023
It wasn’t necessarily a great start for the Hurricanes, who were playing on their heels through parts of the first period and found themselves down midway through the frame, off a great shot from Cal Clutterbuck. The Islanders then really started to take over in the second period, where the Hurricanes allowed a significant number of high-end chances and gave up 17 shots. However, thanks to some big saves from Andersen, the Hurricanes remained down only a single goal through 40 minutes.
That’s where the momentum swung, as the Hurricanes came out with their best frame of the game by far in the third period. They were outshooting the Islanders by a massive margin and spent a lot of the period in New York’s end. Then midway through the period, Sebastian Aho managed to tie the game for Carolina, catching a puck and dropping it to his stick in front to score on the open net in-close to tie the game. The Hurricanes outshot New York 19-5 in the frame and the script had flipped, with Sorokin now being forced to keep the game even.
It didn’t take long for the Hurricanes to end it in overtime from there, with Paul Stastny just throwing the puck on goal from a bad angle six minutes into the frame and somehow beating Sorokin, winning the series for Carolina and sending the team to the next round.
Despite a less-than-stellar first 40 minutes of the game, the Hurricanes rebounded with a huge third period and it’s the reason they were able to come out ahead.
You have to give it to this team, battling through so many injuries to their forward group to still get through the series. Though they didn’t have a ton of secondary offense and really did rely on Sebastian Aho and Brent Burns to do a lot of the heavy lifting offensively, but players like Seth Jarvis and Stefan Noesen stepped up as well.
Starting Frederik Andersen was also a risky decision but paid off in a big way for Carolina, with the netminder making 33 saves in the win. It made sense given that if the series did go to Game 7, it would’ve allowed the team to choose between the netminders, rather than having to either stick with Raanta or throw Andersen in cold for an elimination game. We figured there was a good chance both goalies would see action in the playoffs.
So now, we’ll wait to see who emerges as the Hurricanes’ second round opponent. The New Jersey Devils are up 3-2 on the New York Rangers, with Game 6 set for tonight.
Carolina will once again have home ice advantage next round.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM APRIL
Hurricanes sweep weekend back-to-back, closing in on Metro Division title Hurricanes blow lead against Senators, rebound for overtime win Hurricanes shut out by Predators as lack of scoring remains an issue Hurricanes lose to Sabres, unable to build momentum down the stretch Hurricanes split back-to-back, hold division lead with one game remaining Canes beat Panthers to clinch Metro, will face Islanders in first round Hurricanes vs. Islanders: Quest for the Cup begins Hurricanes hold off Islanders for Game 1 win Hurricanes go up 2-0 on Islanders with OT win but lose Teuvo Teravainen Hurricanes drop Game 3 after late surge from Islanders Hurricanes take stranglehold on series with Game 4 road win over Islanders Canes fail to close out series at home, fall short vs. Islanders in Game 5