The Skinny: Carolina 5, Isles 2

"The Skinny"      

By Eric Hornick

Game 48

Carolina 5, Isles 2 

Sebastian Aho completed a natural hat trick into an empty net as the Carolina Hurricanes scored the game's final three goals to earn a 5-2 victory over the Islanders before a sellout crowd of 17,255 on Alumni Weekend at UBS Arena. 

Carolina had grabbed a 2-0 lead before the game was even four minutes old, but Simon Holmstrom and Brock Nelson scored 100 seconds apart later in the session to end the first period tied, but Aho took over from there to earn his 6th career hat trick to give the Canes the victory. 

The Isles fall to 23-20-5 and are now tied with Florida, two points behind Pittsburgh for the second wild card spot. The Isles are 2-6-3 since the calendar turned to 2023 and head to Ontario to face the Leafs on Monday and the Senators on Wednesday.

The Scoring: 

1st Period

Jordan Staal (12) Jalen Chatfield (3), Brent Burns (24) 00:44 CAR 1,NYI 0

Jesper Fast (6) Jordan Staal (9) 03:52 CAR 2,NYI 0

Simon Holmstrom (2) Anders Lee (16) 14:02 CAR 2,NYI 1

Brock Nelson (17) 15:42 CAR 2,NYI 2 

2nd Period

Sebastian Aho (15) Teuvo Teravainen (16) 16:40 CAR 3,NYI 2

3rd Period

Sebastian Aho (16) 07:09 CAR 4,NYI 2

Sebastian Aho (17) Teuvo Teravainen (17) 19:38 CAR 5,NYI 2

The Skinny   

The Isles went 0-2 on the power play; they are 3-29 in the last twelve games and 3-54 in the last twenty games …The Isles did kill all three Hurricane power plays; they have killed 20 of their last 21 overall and their NHL-leading home penalty-killers are now 56/62 (90.3%)...The Isles allowed the first goal for the first time in six games … The Isles have scored twelve goals in the last seven games (1-3-3); all but two have been scored in the first period…The Isles have not scored a third period goal in a franchise-record nine straight games (since scoring three in Vancouver) and have been outscored 11-0 in that stretch… The Isles' third period differential is now just +2; the Isles were +16 in the third period through 23 games but are -14 over the last 25 games…Noah Dobson and Scott Mayfield remained at 99 points. They are looking to become the 25th and 26th defenseman in club history to reach 100 points…Brock Nelson scored for the second straight game, after being held without a goal in fourteen games; he leads the team with 17 goals…It was the first time in 14 games this season that Nelson scored and the Isles lost in regulation (12-1-1)...Mathew Barzal was held without a point for the seventh straight game; he did have six shots on goal after being held to a combined total of two in the prior three games…It was only the 8th time this season that Carolina was out-shot…January 21st had historically been a very good day for the Isles; they had won ten consecutive games on this date since an overtime loss to Carolina in 2008…Brock Nelson and Anthony Beauvillier were on-ice for all five Carolina goals and went -4; Josh Bailey was on for all but the empty-netter and went -3…Simon Holmstrom's goal, his first ever at UBS, was his first goal since December 17th in Las Vegas…Sebastian Aho is the first Cane with a hat trick against the Isles since Jaccob Slavin (3/13/2017)

That First Period

Jordan Staal's goal at :48 was the earliest ever allowed by Ilya Sorokin.  When Jesper Fast scored at 3:52, the Isles had allowed two goals in the first four minutes for the first time since March 10, 2020 when Vancouver scored twice in the first 2:41 of the final game played before the COVID shutdown.   The Isles then rallied for a pair of goals on their own, marking the first time since January 25, 2022 (vs. Philadelphia) that the Isles both scored and allowed multiple goals in a first period.

Last Year vs. This Year

• 2022-23  23-20-5 for 51 points in 48 games

• 2021-22  19-21-8 for 46 points in 48 games

Offense from Defense

• Today:  0-0-0

• Season: 27-68-95

• Last Season (Final) 32-128-160

The Islander defense have scored 27 goals (Carolina leads with 30); they didn't score their 27th goal last season until April 19th.  

Sorokin's House

Ilya Sorokin is 22-13-6 all-time at UBS Arena.  His goals against average of 2.08 trails only Frederik Andersen (2.02) among goalies who have made multiple home starts over the last two seasons and his save percentage of .931 is the best in the NHL over that span.  Sorokin went 9-1-0 at the Coliseum; he is 31-14-6 in his career at home and his .929 career save percentage is the best on home ice in NHL history (minimum 40 home games).

Zach Attack 

Zach Parise has 421 career goals, good for 9th among actives, and tied with Stephane Richer, Vincent Lecavalier and Steve Thomas for 86th place all-time.  Owen Nolan is 85th with 422 goals and Steve Shutt is 84th with 424 goals.

Home and Road

The Isles are 23-20-5 overall; they are 13-9-2 at home and 10-11-3 on the road.

Carolina is 29-9-8 overall; they are 14-5-2 at home and 15-4-0 on the road.

East and West

The Isles are 13-10-3 against the East (9-5-1 vs. Metropolitan and 4-5-2 vs. Atlantic) and 10-10-2 against the West (4-7-2 vs. Central and 6-3-0 vs. Pacific).

Home is Where the Fans Are

The Isles have played 65 games at UBS Arena and recorded 44 sellouts of 17,255. 

Sweet Lou

Lou Lamoriello has the second-highest win total for any general manager in NHL history:

1. David Poile 1,513

2. Lou Lamoriello 1,386

3. Glen Sather 1,319

First Things First

The Isles are 15-6-2 when scoring first and are 8-14-3 when allowing the opening goal. 

The Shots

Isles      8-7-12=27

Carolina 7-10-9=26

The Isles are 12-9-1 when they outshoot their opponents, 0-0-0 when the shots are even and 10-11-4 when they are outshot. 

In the Nets

Ilya Sorokin made 21 saves; he is 15-15-4 on the season and 2-2-1 vs Carolina. 

Frederik Andersen made 25 saves; he is 9-3-0 on the season and 9-4-1 vs. the Isles.

Special Teams

The Isles were 0-2 on the power play (4:00); Carolina was 0-3 on the power play (6:00).

The Isles are 11-8-1 when they score at least one power play goal and 12-12-4 when they do not. The Isles are 11-8-1 when they allow at least one power play goal and 12-12-4 when they do not.

Three is a Magic Number

The Isles are 21-5-2 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 2-15-3 when they do not.

One-Goal Games

The Isles are 8-3-5 in games decided by a single goal including 5-3 in regulation. They are 3-2 in games decided in overtime and are 0-3 in shootouts. The Isles are 4-7 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1-goal game into a 2-goal game.

Back-to-Backs  

The next set of back-to-backs will be on January 27th vs Detroit and on January 28th vs. Vegas – that will be the only time this season that the Isles will play home games on consecutive days. The Isles are 4-5-0 in the front end and 5-3-1 in the back end. 

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Ryan Pulock (season-high 25:02);  Carolina: Brent Burns (24:06)

Mathew Barzal led Isles forwards with 20:39 of ice-time. 

Isles record by ice-time leaders: Alexander Romanov (2-1-1), Noah Dobson (4-10-2), Adam Pelech (3-2-0), Ryan Pulock (5-4-0), Scott Mayfield (6-0-2), Brock Nelson (1-0-0), Mathew Barzal (2-1-0), Sebastian Aho (0-1-0), Tied (0-1-0).

Face-offs

Isles 31, Carolina 29 (52%)

Aatu Raty won 3 of 5 for the Isles; Paul Stastny won 8 of 12 for Carolina. 

Hit Count

Isles 24 (Matt Martin -6)

Carolina 16 (Jordan Staal -4)

Fights 

None. Season total: 13 (Martin-5, Lee-2, Wahlstrom-2, Johnston-2, Cizikas, Romanov)

 

Blocked Shots

Isles 20 (Sebastian Aho and Ryan Dobson -4)

Carolina 15 (Jesper Fast -3)

For the Analytics Crowd 

Corsi: All situations: Isles 52, Carolina 67

Corsi: 5-on-5: Isles 42, Carolina 55

5-on-5 leaders:

Isles:  Scott Mayfield +12

Carolina:  Dylan Coghlan +15

High Danger Scoring Chances (per Natural Stat Trick)

All situations: Isles 11, Carolina 13

5-on-5: Isles 9, Carolina 12

Scratches

(Adam Pelech – upper body-IR), (Kyle Palmieri- upper body-IR), (Oliver Wahlstrom-IR), (Hudson Fasching- upper body), (Cal Clutterbuck – upper body), Dennis Cholowski

Games Lost: 97

The Ironmen

Zach Parise played in his 130th consecutive Islander game; he has played in every game since joining the team in October 2021. It is the 20th-longest active streak in the NHL.  

Noah Dobson played in his 113th consecutive Islander game.

Challenges

Isles: 1 successful, 0 failures – STL goalie interference 11/3

Opponents: 1 successful, 0 failures – PIT offside 12/27

League reviews: 4 (Isles goal – Salo vs ANA 10/16 – stood; Isles no goal vs NSH 12/2-stood; Isles goal- Martin vs CHI 12/4-awarded; MIN goal (Gaudreau) 1/12 – awarded)

Quickies

The Isles have scored two goals in under a minute six times this season (five times at home and once on road):

• 0:17 10/29 vs. COL (Mayfield and Beauvillier)

• 0:59 11/7 vs. CGY (Lee and Palmieri)

• 0:22 11/26 vs PHI (Nelson and Beauvillier)

• 0:43 12/4 vs CHI (Parise and Nelson)

• 0:21 12/6 vs STL (Fasching and Pageau)

• 0:34 12/9 @ NJD (Cizikas and Wahlstrom)

Multi-Goal 3rd Period Comeback Wins

The Isles have come from two goals behind after two periods to win three times this season and have not allowed the opposition to do so.

For: Trailed 3-1, Won 5-3 vs. COL 10/29

Trailed 3-1, Won 4-3 (OT) vs CGY 11/7

Trailed 3-1, Won 4-3 at NYR 11/8

Last Minute Heroes:

The Isles have scored two goal and allowed one goal in the final three minutes of the third period that were either the winning goal or forced overtime. 

For(2): Brock Nelson vs COL 10/29 (18:39;EN/GW)

Josh Bailey @ TOR 11/21 (17:02; Isles won in OT)

Vs (1): Kappo Kaako @NYR  12/22 (17:13: GW)

Overtime Winners

For (3): Noah Dobson vs CGY 11/7 (4:02)

Zach Parise vs CBJ 11/12 (0:39) 

Anthony Beauvillier @ TOR 11/21 (1:56)

Vs. (2): Dimitry Orlov Vs WAS 1/16 (4:27)

Dylan Cozens @ BUF 1/19 (0:12)

Shootout Winners

Vs (3):  David Pastrnak @ BOS 12/13

Evan Rodrigues @ COL 12/19

Jason Robertson Vs DAL 1/10

All-time Islander Leader Boards:

Games Played (skaters)

1. Bryan Trottier 1,123 *** 2. Denis Potvin 1,060 *** 3. Josh Bailey 1,037…

7. Mike Bossy 752 *** 8. Matt Martin 732 *** 9. Brock Nelson 724*** 10. Patrick Flatley 712 *** 11. Casey Cizikas 710… 

13. John Tavares 669 *** 14. Anders Lee 644 *** 15. Derek King 638 *** 16. Billy Harris 623 *** 17. Stefan Persson 622 *** 18. Cal Clutterbuck 621

Goals    

1. Mike Bossy 573 *** 2. Bryan Trottier 500 *** 3. Denis Potvin 310 …

9. Bobby Nystrom 235 *** 10. Anders Lee 227 *** 11. Brock Nelson 222 *** 12. Derek King 211 *** 13. John Tonelli 206  *** 14 Billy Harris 184 *** 15. Josh Bailey 182

Assists

1. Bryan Trottier 853 *** 2. Denis Potvin 742 *** 3. Mike Bossy 553 *** 4. Josh Bailey 392…

15. Billy Harris 259*** 16. Mathew Barzal 250 *** 17. Tomas Jonsson 249 *** 18. Frans Nielsen and Kyle Okposo 230 *** 20. Brock Nelson 206…

23. Ed Westfall 181 *** 24. Kenny Jonsson 175 *** 25. Alexei Yashin and Duane Sutter 171 *** 27. Anders Lee 170

Points

1. Bryan Trottier 1,353 *** 2. Mike Bossy 1,126 *** 3. Denis Potvin 1,052…

6.  Brent Sutter 610 *** 7. Josh Bailey 574  …

14. Billy Harris 443 *** 15. Brock Nelson 428 ***  16. Anders Lee 397 *** 17. Kyle Okposo and Stefan Persson 369…19. Mathew Barzal 352

+/-

1. Bryan Trottier +467 *** 2. Denis Potvin +456 *** 3. Mike Bossy +380…

15. Bob Lorimer +105 *** 16. Tomas Jonsson +76 *** 17. Garry Howatt +75 *** 18. Adam Pelech +74 *** 19. Pat Price +70 *** 20. JP Parise +67 *** 21. Jude Drouin +58 *** 22. Patrick Flatley +57 *** 23. Ryan Pulock +55 *** 24. Greg Gilbert +54

Defense Goals

1. Denis Potvin 310 *** 2. Tomas Jonsson 84 *** Kenny Jonsson 57…

6. Nick Leddy 45 *** 7. Roman Hamrlik 43 **** 8. Mark Streit and  Ryan Pulock 40 *** 10. Johnny Boychuk *** 11. Adrian Aucoin 33 *** 12. Bryan Berard 31***13. Vladimir Malakhov and Noah Dobson 27

Defense Assists

1. Denis Potvin 742 *** 2. Stefan Persson 317 *** 3. Tomas Jonsson 249…

8. Mark Streit 139 *** 9. Roman Hamrlik 120 *** 10. Ryan Pulock 121…

18. Dave Langevin and Thomas Hickey 95 *** 20. Adam Pelech 92

Defense Points

1. Denis Potvin 1,052 *** 2. Stefan Persson 369 *** 3. Tomas Jonsson 333…

8. Mark Streit 179 *** 9. Ryan Pulock 161…

17. Vladimir Malakhov 125 *** 18. Thomas Hickey 117 *** 19. Adam Pelech 114...

23. Scott Lachance and Ken Morrow 105 *** 25. Noah Dobson and Scott Mayfield 99

Wins

1. Billy Smith 304 *** 2. Glenn Resch 157 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 130…

10. Evgeni Nabokov 57 *** 11. Semyon Varlamov 56 *** 12. Ilya Sorokin 54

Shutouts

1. Glenn Resch 25 *** 2. Billy Smith 22 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 16 …

4. Tommy Salo 14 ***5. Ilya Sorokin 13 *** 6. Semyon Varlamov and Jaroslav Halak 12 

On the Farm

Bridgeport is 17-16-1 on the season after splitting a pair of games this weekend. On Friday, Cory Schneider made 40 saves for a 1-0 OT win over Rochester; William Dufour had the winner.  On Saturday, Samuel Bolduc scored twice but the Islanders fell 3-2 to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. 

Andy Andreoff leads the team (and is tied-6th in the AHL) with 19 goals, while Chis Terry continues to lead in assists (26) and points (37).   William Dufour now has 14 goals, and is tied-4th among AHL rookies; Dufour has points in 10 of his last 12 games.

Bridgeport gets back into action Wednesday when they visit Hartford.

Season Series Stats

Carolina leads the season series, 2 games to 1 (and 4 points to 2). The Isles will travel to Raleigh on April 3rd to conclude the season series.

Carolina has won five straight on Long Island, including one in overtime; the Isles are 2-6-2 in their last nine home games against the Canes.

UP NEXT

MONDAY, JANUARY 23rd – ISLANDERS AT TORONTO 7:00pm

[MSGSN (pre-game at 6:30), WRHU 88.7 FM, WRCN 103.9FM, ESPN Radio]

The Isles head to Toronto to face the Leafs on Monday.  It is the second meeting of the season between the teams; the Isles beat Toronto 3-2 in overtime on November 21st; Anthony Beauvillier scored the winning goal.

The Isles are 2-2-0 in regular season play in Toronto since John Tavares joined the Leafs.  The Isles also won three playoff series in the Toronto Bubble.

Eric Hornick has been the statistician on Islander home game telecasts since January 21, 1982. Information contained in "The Skinny" has been gathered from various sources. Follow Eric @ehornick on Twitter & on his blog www.nyiskinny.com

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick