RALEIGH, N.C. — This was the sort of ugly Game 1 that the Islanders felt right at home in, with the sort of tie game entering the final period that has become second nature for this team during a season when seemingly every game came down to the wire.
So even if the Islanders never quite had their A-game on Saturday night, the 3-1 series-opening loss to Carolina represents a missed opportunity that they could come to rue later on.
“Encouraged because I thought we played a really solid game,” coach Patrick Roy said. “We did a lot of good things out there. It was a hard-fought game, but we had our chances.
“And frustrated because we had our chances.”
A year ago, the difference in the six-game series between these teams came on the margins — the Islanders losing a pair of games in overtime and a third by one goal — and again, that was where Carolina came out ahead on Saturday evening.
Neither team quite had offensive momentum entering the final period tied at one, with Evgeny Kuznetsov and Kyle MacLean each having scored in the game’s opening 10 minutes before the game got bogged down with defense.
But following a helter-skelter start to the night, the Islanders had settled in quite nicely and done an excellent job suppressing a Hurricanes team that, as you may have heard, loves to shoot the puck.
Carolina finished the night with just 26 shots on net, a number the Islanders would have been thrilled to hear pregame, and there was indeed a lot to like from the visitors defensively.
But when it came down to crunch time, the Hurricanes did just enough and the Islanders put together a highlight reel of nearly.
Just 3:43 into the third period — after Frederik Andersen stopped an excellent Noah Dobson chance a few minutes prior — Stefan Noesen broke the 1-1 tie, converting after the puck fell to him off Brady Skjei’s deflection.
After the Islanders had spent the second period preventing the Hurricanes from establishing a foothold in the offensive zone, this goal came as a product of exactly that, following multiple shifts of sustained pressure.
“It’s unfortunate,” Dobson said of his chance. “I think it hit the post, went off their goalie’s back and just kinda sat there. He made a heck of a save on the rebound.”
The Islanders started to press from there and the chance they were looking for came on the power play with a Kyle Palmieri wraparound.
But instead of going in, the puck brushed harmlessly off the post.
And when the Isles pulled Varlamov for an extra attacker, all that happened was Martin Necas finding an empty net to seal the game.
“It’s the playoffs. Both goalies played well,” Palmieri said. “Sometimes the bounces go your way and sometimes they don’t.”
A few inches here, a few inches there and the Islanders would be looking pretty good right now.
But that’s not how it went and that’s not how the series looks after Game 1.
As good as they were in their own zone, the Islanders struggled to establish a forecheck or put sustained pressure on Frederik Andersen.
In the rare moments they did, Andersen looked to struggle tracking the puck and with his rebound control, but the Isles were rarely in position to take advantage.
And the power play, sticking with the trend line coming into the series, couldn’t come up with a goal despite a pair of chances and despite getting within inches on the second of those.
If there’s a path to victory in this series, maybe the Islanders found some pieces of it on Saturday. Certainly they can make things interesting by replicating their defensive effort.
“Frustrating,” Roy said, “in the way that I thought we played well enough to win. But honestly, I’m very pleased with the performance of our team.”
Given the Islanders’ underdog status, though, it’s hard to view this game as anything other than a missed opportunity.
The Islanders had the chance to put the Stanley Cup favorites on the back foot. They didn’t take it.
And who knows if there will be another one.
