Islanders 4, Hurricanes 3
Brock Nelson scored the go-ahead goal in the second period as New York overcame Jiri Tlusty's second career hat trick to win its final home opener at Nassau Coliseum before the club moves to Brooklyn next season.
Captain John Tavares scored a power-play goal and assisted on Cory Conacher's tally for the Islanders, who completed a home-and-home sweep of Carolina. Josh Bailey also scored, Chad Johnson made 21 saves and defenseman Johnny Boychuk notched two assists after scoring a goal and setting up two others in New York's 5-3 road victory on Friday.
Tlusty scored a pair of power-play goals before capping his hat trick with an unassisted tally with 5:59 remaining in the third period that trimmed the Islanders' lead to 4-3. Alexander Semin set up a pair of tallies and captain Eric Staal added his 400th career assist on Tlusty's second tally, but Carolina saw its four-game winning streak in Long Island come to a halt.
After collecting two goals and two assists on Friday, Nelson deflected Boychuk's blast from just inside the blue line past Anton Khudobin (27 saves) at 6:47 of the second period to give New York a 3-2 edge. Bailey added a tip-in with just 3.6 seconds remaining in the session to deflate the Hurricanes.
Tavares followed up his three-assist performance by opening the scoring just 3:50 into the contest with a quick wrist shot from the left faceoff circle. Tlusty sandwiched a pair of goals around Conacher's first of the season, with the latter coming after a brilliant give-and-go with Staal with 17 seconds remaining in the first period.
GAME NOTEBOOK: New York is enjoying its first 2-0-0 start since sweeping a home-and-home series versus Buffalo in 2007-08. ... Islanders RW Kyle Okposo had two assists on Saturday and has three on the season. ... Staal was on the receiving end of several big hits before retreating to the locker room midway through the third period.