Islanders at Hurricanes
The Carolina Hurricanes look to continue their offensive onslaught against the New York Islanders when they host the back end of the home-and-home set Tuesday night. The Hurricanes, who are in the bottom third of the league in scoring, recorded 20 goals in three victories over the Islanders this season after getting a hat trick from defenseman Jaccob Slavin in an 8-4 win Monday.
Defenseman Justin Faulk scored twice for Carolina, which is 6-0-2 against New York in the last eight meetings and boasts points in six of its last eight games (3-2-3) while keeping faint playoff hopes alive – nine points out of the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. The loss was the second straight for the Islanders, who remained one point behind Toronto and fell into a tie with Tampa Bay for ninth place in the East. New York goalie Thomas Greiss is struggling of late and was rested to start Monday’s game, but had to come on when Jean-Francois Berube surrendered four goals on 13 shots. “Just bad all over the ice, goaltenders included,” Islanders coach Doug Weight told reporters. “There’s no hiding in this one, that’s for sure.”
TV: 7 p.m. ET, MSG Plus 2 (New York), FSN Carolinas
ABOUT THE ISLANDERS (32-25-11): While New York struggled in its own end Monday, its top five scorers did not register a point as rookie forward Joshua Ho-Sang enjoyed his first career multi-point game (goal, assist). Captain John Tavares had five points in his previous four games to push his team-leading total to 58 and Josh Bailey (49 points) owns five assists in his last five outings. Greiss has an .879 save percentage in his last eight games after allowing four more tallies Monday and there is speculation veteran netminder Jaroslav Halak could be recalled soon.
ABOUT THE HURRICANES (28-27-11): Left wing Jeff Skinner scored a pair of goals Monday to increase his team-leading totals to 23 tallies and 45 points while Slavin more than doubled his to five goals. Slavin, who also recorded an assist Monday, is the first Carolina defenseman to record a hat trick since Joe Corvo accomplished the feat March 16, 2008. Faulk boasts a four-game point streak (three goals, two assists) after being kept off the scoresheet in the previous nine contests and center Jordan Staal owns five assists in his last three outings.
OVERTIME
1. New York F Anders Lee is tied with Tavares for the team lead with 25 goals and needs one for his career high.
2. Carolina F Lucas Wallmark made his NHL debut Monday and was a minus-1 with one shot on net in 10:05 of ice time.
3. Islanders F Cal Clutterbuck is one goal shy of 100 in his career and D Dennis Seidenberg is one away from 200 assists.