In Raleigh, the Hurricanes found themselves in a tight opening stanza on Saturday afternoon, the visiting New York Islanders and Cane splayed to a 1-1 tie after the first 20 minutes. 
“We weren’t great, that’s for sure,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “[New York] is a perfect example of a team that’s been playing playoff hockey for a month [against] a team that hasn’t. As the game wore on, it started getting up to speed with how it’s going to be.”
Carolina scored twice in the third period for a 3-1 win and 1-0 series lead.
The Canes took a 1-0 lead with 695 seconds gone in the game, scoring on a power play goal from Evgeny Kuznetsov.
“[Noesen] screened pretty good, and ‘Varly’ didn’t see the puck,” Kuznetsov said. “ That’s why I shot that puck.”
Kyle MacLean replied for the Islanders at 8:20, scoring off a rebound.
“It’s the playoffs,” MacLean said. “There’s a lot of adrenaline and a lot of excitement, so it was cool to help the team out there early. It was a cool experience getting my first one in [my first playoff game].”
Frederik Andersen made 33 saves in the win.
“I think I just got clipped with someone’s skate,” Andersen said. “Just kind of threw the technique book out the window and tried to come up with something to get close to the puck and get something on it.”
After a scoreless middle frame, Stefan Noesen gave scored at 3:44 of the third period for a 2-1 lead to the Canes.
“There’s no other way that I know how to do it,” Noesen said. “I’m not the pretty dingle-dangle guy out there. You just go to the net and try to find bounces.”
Martin Necas hit an empty net with 92 seconds left ion the game clock for the 3-1 final count. 
Semyon Varlamov made 23 saves in the loss.
“We played a simple hockey game. We created some pretty good looks because of that,” the Islanders Anders Lee said. “Guys were smart with the puck all night, head up, making plays, we just didn’t bury them.
“We played a solid game tonight.”
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