The New York Islanders have been knocked out by the Carolina Hurricanes in the playoffs in each of the past two seasons.
On Saturday afternoon, the Hurricanes have a chance to make it even harder for the Islanders to reach the playoffs next spring.
The struggling Islanders will try to end their losing streak when they face the Hurricanes in their first matchup of the season in Elmont, N.Y.
Both teams had a break on Friday after playing at home on Thursday. The Islanders lost 5-2 to the Seattle Kraken, while the Hurricanes won 5-3 against the Colorado Avalanche.
The Islanders’ 18th loss of the season, which was the worst in the Eastern Conference, might have been their most frustrating. The Kraken were ahead 4-0 after two periods, even though they had only 13 shots.
New York, which has been outscored 45-24 in the third period and overtime this season, managed to score two goals to reduce the gap, but Jaden Schwartz sealed the win for Seattle with an empty-net goal with 2:40 left.
A crowd of 14,877, more than 2,000 people short of the UBS Arena’s 17,255-seat capacity, was quiet until they booed the Islanders off the ice after their worst loss of the season.
New York has lost 10 of their last 13 games (3-5-5), falling to last place in the Metropolitan Division. However, they ended Thursday just two points behind the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
“I understand our fans were (ticked) off,” said Islanders coach Patrick Roy. “I’d be (ticked) off as well. Nobody was very happy, and they deserve to not be happy. But at the same time, our guys were trying. We just didn’t have our best game. We got outplayed, and they played better than us.”
The mood for the Hurricanes was better after they ended a season-worst three-game losing streak with a win over the Avalanche on Thursday.
Seth Jarvis scored the go-ahead goal 4:09 into the second period, and Jack Roslovic made it 3-1 just 2:32 later. Jarvis’ goal was the Hurricanes’ first lead since their previous win, a 4-3 victory over the New York Rangers on Nov. 27.
The Hurricanes, who had been outscored 16-5 during their losing streak, limited the Avalanche to only 14 shots in the first 54 minutes of the game. Colorado then managed five shots and scored twice over the final 5:47.
Carolina center Martin Necas scored with 2:11 left to make it a two-goal lead before another Avalanche goal. But Carolina right winger Andrei Svechnikov stopped the Avalanche’s comeback attempt by scoring an empty-net goal with 16 seconds remaining.
“It didn’t faze them, they just kept playing,” said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour. “The way it’s gone the last few games, it could have maybe gone a different direction, but it didn’t.”
