Barzal’s OT goal lifts Islanders over Canes, 5-4 Aho forces extra time with three seconds left in regulation

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In Raleigh, Sebastian Aho scored with three seconds left in regulation on Thursday night knot the game between the Hurricanes and the visiting New York Islanders at 4-4.

The strike forced extra time where Mathew Barzal scored midway through the session for a 5-4 win to the Islanders.

“Just a heck of an effort by the entire group tonight,” Barzal said. “It feels great to get the win. If you ask anybody around the League, this is probably the hardest place to come in and play. When they get rolling around and the crowd gets into it, it’s borderline impossible to change the momentum.”

Semyon Varlamov. made 39 saves in the win.

“I think the whole game, we were committed,” New York coach Lane Lambert said. “We blocked a lot of shots (30), we did a lot of things we needed to do to win a hockey game in this building. I thought we did a pretty good job of making sure that we stuck to battling and not worrying about their shot total.”

The Islanders improved to 9-7-6.

Carolina took a 1-0 lead in the first period off a strike by Jalen Chatfield at 8:08.

New York replied with a marker from Bo Horvat 18:00 to knot it, 1-1.

Jordan Staal reclaimed the lad for the Canes at 2:01 of the middle frame, 2-1.

“I thought we played pretty well,” Staal said. “I thought our 5-on-5 play was good. We hit a bunch of posts and [had] a couple other great chances, and we came up short by one.”

The Hurricanes dropped to 13-8-1.

“That was one of the better games we’ve played all year,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We can’t play much better than that. I love the way we played, every part of that game was solid. We limited what they were doing.”

Simon Holmstrom  tied the game, 2-2, on a shorthanded goal at 15:59.

“I was just trying to fake him out for the backhand pass and go upstairs there,” Holmstrom said.

he two teams traded goal the rest of the way with the Isles grabbing a 3-2 lead on a strike by Pierre Engvall at 18:03.

Carolina tied it, again, at 3-3, on a marker from Jack Drury with just 39 seconds gone in the third.

The Islanders’ Kyle Palmieri put them up, 4-3, off the power play at 6:41

Pyotr Kochetkov made 11 saves in the loss.

“[Kochetkov] knows he’s got to have a couple saves,” Brind’Amour said. “That’s the difference. You can’t go through the game without giving up a couple Grade A opportunities. We’ve got to get a few of those, and he will. We’ve just got to get that consistency in that position and we’re in good shape.”