from Ethan Sears of the New York Post,
The Islanders’ season-long kryptonite of holding a lead had gone away for a while.
But it reared its ugly head at the worst possible moment on Monday night, as the Islanders took a 3-0 lead and turned it into a 5-3 loss to the Hurricanes to go down 2-0 in the first round of the playoffs after Carolina scored three times in the last 2:30 to complete the comeback, with Jordan Martinook netting the winner.
It’s the second time the Islanders have blown a 3-0 lead against the Hurricanes this season, but unlike the first one on Nov. 4, this will be excruciatingly tough to get over....
It looked as though the Islanders — despite having sat back and absorbed pressure for most of the night — would somehow get out of the night alive when they entered the final three minutes hanging onto a 3-2 lead....
But quickly following Carolina’s timeout with 2:49 to go, Sebastian Aho deflected in Andrei Svechnikov’s shot at the right post with the extra attacker on for Carolina.
Just nine seconds later, Martinook completed the Islanders’ collapse, beating Noah Dobson to the left post off the faceoff and sticking the puck in.
“Obviously the tying goal, we lost our coverage,” said a shell-shocked Patrick Roy. “I was going to call a timeout right there and I said, ‘We’ll see if the puck goes in our zone. If it goes in our zone, I will call a timeout to cool off a bit.’
Catch the game highlights here.
Had to give oxygen to my fellow Isles fans last night. Truth be told, the Isles should have lost 15-3. This is turning into the second worst scenario I envisioned. The worst would have been to have finished 9th and not have had a crack at playoffs. I will wait a bit before commenting on why this is happening, but clearly, it's a roster problem - not a coaching problem. The Isles played *very* well in Game 1 and Carolina countered in Game 2 and took the Isles game and shoved it down their throats.
Carolina is such a LOUSY match up for the Isles. I can't even get too mad over the result. Carolina just may go all the way. And, I don't think the Canes have played their best.
More comments after Game 4....I am going to both home games and (laughs) have tickets for Game 6.
I think the Isles get a win on the Island and then get eliminated in 5 - like I said before. I also said the score would be close - and sans Empty Net Goals - it has been. Close on the scoreboard. Not close in terms of talent and in terms of puck posession.
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