Kuznetsov and Martin Necas every had a objective and an help for the Hurricanes, who’re the No. 2 seed from the Metropolitan Division. Skjei had two assists.
“We weren’t nice, that’s for certain,” Brind’Amour mentioned. “[New York] is an ideal instance of a workforce that’s been enjoying playoff hockey for a month [against] a workforce that hasn’t. As the sport wore on, it began getting up to the mark with the way it’s going to be.”
Kyle MacLean scored, and Varlamov made 23 saves for the Islanders, who’re the No. 3 seed from the Metropolitan.
Recreation 2 will probably be in Raleigh on Monday.
“[I am] inspired as a result of I believe we performed a extremely stable recreation,” New York coach Patrick Roy mentioned. “It was a hard-fought recreation, however we had our possibilities. All yr we’ve been resilient, and [this] is the second to proceed to do this.”
Kuznetsov gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead with a power-play objective at 1:35 of the primary interval. He took a move from Necas and roofed a shot over Varlamov’s proper shoulder with Noesen offering a display in entrance.
“[Noesen] screened fairly good, and ‘Varly’ didn’t see the puck,” Kuznetsov mentioned. “ That’s why I shot that puck.”
MacLean tied it 1-1 at 8:20 of the primary. Anders Lee tipped Alexander Romanov’s shot from the left level, which trickled beneath Andersen’s pads, and MacLean knocked within the rebound close to the appropriate submit.
“It is the playoffs,” MacLean mentioned. “There’s quite a lot of adrenaline and quite a lot of pleasure, so it was cool to assist the workforce on the market early. It was a cool expertise getting my first one in [my first playoff game].”
After Noesen put the Hurricanes again in entrance, Kyle Palmieri had an opportunity throughout an influence play to tie it once more. He picked up a rebound close to the left submit and tried to slip the puck round Andersen into an open internet, however his likelihood hit off the submit at 12:31.
Necas would go on to attain an empty-net objective from heart ice with 1:32 remaining for the 3-1 ultimate.
“We performed a easy hockey recreation. We created some fairly attractiveness due to that,” Lee mentioned. “Guys have been good with the puck all night time, head up, making performs, we simply did not bury them.
“We performed a stable recreation tonight.”