Carolina Hurricanes cruise past the New York Islanders 4-2
Eric Staal lit the lamp twice and had an assist to lead the Carolina Hurricanes to a 4-2 victory over the New York Islanders on Wednesday.
Zach Boychuk and Brandon Sutter also tallied goals for Carolina, who have won three of their last four contests. Cam Ward turned aside 23 shots for the victors.
Staal praised the effort of his team-mates after the game. He said, "It was a huge game for us before the break. It was a good start for us, good effort and we stayed with it, stayed on the gas."
Michael Grabner and Andrew MacDonald each scored a goal for New York, who will head into the break having lost five of their previous six play-offs. Rick DiPietro was dented for all four goals on 31 shots.
Carolina opened the scoring with nearly five minutes to play in the first period to take a 1-0 lead. Using a New York defender as a screen, Boychuk fired a wrist shot from the slot over DiPietro’s glove.
However, that lead didn’t last long, as the Islanders tied the game at 1-1 just 31 seconds into the middle stanza. It started when Jamie McBain and Joni Pitkanen followed Frans Nielsen into the corner. Nielsen then chipped a pass from the end board in front
to Grabner, who made a quick deke in front of the net to beat Ward with a backhand.
“I had chances before. Now they’re starting to go in,” Grabner said. “I think I’m more confident. It’s nice to see that the coach has confidence in me.”
Staal then netted two goals within 88-seconds to give the Hurricanes a two-goal advantage.
Staal gave the Hurricanes a 2-1 lead in the sixth minute of the second session. The goal came when his poke-check in the Islanders zone started a rush. Erik Cole sent a pass in the left face-off circle, where Staal finished the rush by lifting a backhander
over DiPietro.
Staal struck again to make it a 3-1 game in the eighth minute of the middle frame. The play was set up by Joe Corvo, who snapped a shot from the point toward the net. Staal got his stick on the shot and deflected it past DiPietro for his 25th goal of the
2010-11 season.
An excited Staal, in a post-match interview, said, “We scored two quick ones to make it 3-1. We want to beat the teams below us in the standings. You want to stay on the gas when you’re ahead. We got that one, then another right after. (It was) a big momentum-killer
for them; made the hole a little bit too big for them.”
Brandon Sutter then extended Carolina’s lead to 4-1 with just five minutes left in the final session. Sutter got behind the defence on a pass from Jiri Tlusty and beat DiPietro on the backhand.
In the dying minutes of the game Andrew MacDonald reduced the deficit to 4-2, but that proved to be nothing more than a consolation goal, as the Hurricanes held on for the win.
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