Islanders players celebrate a goal in the third period Friday night against the Carolina Hurricanes. The Islanders scored four goals in the final four minutes to earn a 5-1 win. Bryan Woolston/Associated Press
NEW YORK — Kyle Palmieri and Matt Martin scored 44 seconds apart late in the third period and the New York Islanders beat the Carolina Hurricanes 5-1 Friday night to cut their first-round series deficit to 2-1.
Casey Cizikas, Scott Mayfield and Anders Lee also scored as New York got four late goals in a 2:18 span late – the fastest four goals in Stanley Cup playoff history. Ilya Sorokin stopped 30 shots for the Islanders, who had a pair of one-goal losses in the first two games at Carolina.
Jesper Fast scored for the Hurricanes and Antti Raanta finished with 32 saves.
Game 4 is back at the UBS Arena on Sunday.
The Islanders had two of their four power plays in the third period, but couldn’t manage many scoring chances. Raanta then denied an in-close try from Bo Horvat with 61/2 minutes remaining to keep the score tied. The Hurricanes goalie then made a sliding, sprawling save on a try by Noah Dobson about 40 seconds later.
With 1 second left on another Islanders power play, defenseman Sebastian Aho fired a shot from the right point that Palmieri deflected out of the air past Raanta with 3:51 left.
Martin then made it 3-1 just 44 seconds later as he got a pass from Pamieri and quickly beat Raanta from the left circle.
The Hurricanes pulled Raanta for an extra skater with about 21/2 minutes remaining and Mayfield scored a long empty-netter with 1:49 left. With the goalie back in, Lee added to the lead 16 seconds later, and the Islanders made playoff history with the four-goal outburst.
Carolina had three power plays over an 111/2-minute stretch carrying over from the final minute of the first period into the middle of the second, but mustered only three shots on goal during the advantages.
Cizikas then gave the Islanders a 1-0 lead as he got a pass from Ryan Pulock after the
defenseman kept the puck in the offensive zone and beat Raanta from the right side with 7:11 left in the second.
The Hurricanes tied it with a short-handed goal with 3:04 left in the second on a 2-on-1 rush. Jordan Staal fed Fast on the right side, and Fast redirected it into Sorokin. The puck was in the crease rolling toward the goal line when trailing Islanders forward Brock Nelson appeared to tip the puck in. It was Fast’s second of the series after he got the overtime winner in Game 2.
The Hurricanes outshot the Islanders 14-7 in a scoreless and physical first period.
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