RALEIGH, N.C. — The Kryptonite that had kept the Islanders in the lead all season had been gone for a while.
But it reared its ugly head at the worst possible moment Monday night, when the Islanders took a 3-0 lead before falling 5-3 and 0-2 to the Hurricanes in the first round of the playoffs. Carolina rallied with three points with 2:30 remaining, with Jordan Martinook scoring the game-winning goal.
It was the second time this season that the Islanders blew a 3-0 lead against Carolina, but this time it hurt a lot more than the first time since Nov. 4.
The equation was much the same as many other heartbreaking losses the Islanders suffered this season. They had a big lead.
They tried to stay calm and play the rest of the game as hard as they could. And there was too much time for it to even have a chance of working.
The game took a big turn just after Anders Lee put the Islanders up by three with a deft power-play goal 3:54 into the second period.
The Islanders took the lead in ugly ways — the Hurricanes had had most of the chances up to that point — but from there they could barely get out of their defense.
This became an unanswerable onslaught for them, and Carolina put in shift after shift that the Islanders couldn’t get off the ice.
Teuvo Teravainen finally broke through on the power play when Adam Pelec was caught on the ground, then the Islanders left their backside vulnerable and Teravainen got a Jake Guentzel feed off the rebound to make it 3-1. Ta.
That’s where we entered the third part, but the tone and tenor that night was completely different.
No matter the score, Carolina has momentum in its own half, and the Islanders will have to rely on a combination of frantic defense and Semyon Varlamov to keep them going.
As Varlamov played, it turned out to be a difficult formula to implement.
The Islanders suddenly held a one-point lead with 9:17 remaining when Seth Jarvis made a wrist shot from the left side to make it 3-2.
Another ominous omen appeared when Kyle McClain’s goal on the next shift was quickly canceled out with a high stick.
Finally, just when it looked like the Islanders would survive, Carolina’s extra attacker appeared with 2:15 left in the game when Andrei Svechnikov’s shot hit the right post and was deflected by Sebastian Aho.
Just nine seconds later, Martinook completed the collapse, slamming Noah Dobson into the left post and pushing the puck in.
Jake Guentzel sealed the game with an empty-net goal just over a minute later.
Broken heart. It’s not the first time. But it’s definitely the worst time.
