ELMONT, NY — Paul Stastny’s goal at 6:01 of overtime gave the Carolina Hurricanes a 2-1 win in Game 6 and eliminated the New York Islanders on Friday night on Long Island.
The veteran forward fired the puck from a bad angle on the right side of goalie Ilya Sorokin and snuck it through. The Hurricanes also won Game 2 in overtime.
Overall, the series had seen more goals on the board from these defensively oriented teams than expected. But Game 6 was a goaltending clinic played in the trenches.
Frederik Andersen started his first game since April 13 after dealing with an illness, after Antti Raanta started the first five games of the series. He was strong in making 35 saves.
Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin confidently scrambled to handle the Canes’ chaos around his crease, making 39 saves in the defeat.
The Islanders took a 1-0 lead just 31 seconds into the game. A bad change by the Hurricanes left Cal Clutterbuck wide open on right wing, who beat Andersen cleanly for his first of the playoffs.
It took a fortunate bounce and a fantastic solo effort from Sebastian Aho in the third period to finally get one behind Sorokin. The Hurricanes center skated the puck into the attacking zone to start the play. After the Islanders’ Brock Nelson failed to curtail the puck, Hurricanes defenseman Brett Pesce recovered it and flipped it towards the net. Aho knocked the puck out of the air with his glove and then quickly tucked the puck into the net on the backhand at 9:24 of the third.
It was Aho’s fourth goal of the series. The Hurricanes outshot the Islanders 19-5 in the third period.
The series win marked the fifth straight postseason under coach Rod Brind’Amour that the Hurricanes won at least one playoff round, including their qualification round win during the 2020 pandemic season.