Hurricanes top Islanders 5-2; Stars beat Blues 4-2
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Sebastian Aho set up Justin Williams’ go-ahead goal with 9:45 remaining, and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the New York Islanders 5-2 on Wednesday night to take a 3-0 lead in their second-round series.
Teuvo Teravainen had two goals, including an empty-netter with 57.1 seconds remaining, Justin Faulk also scored and Aho added another empty-net goal with 4.8 seconds to play.
Curtis McElhinney — who at 35 years and 343 days old became the oldest goalie in NHL history to make his first playoff start — stopped 28 shots in place of Petr Mrazek, who is day to day with a lower body injury.
The wild-card Hurricanes — in the playoffs for the first time in a decade — moved within a victory of a berth in the Eastern Conference final and took a 3-0 series lead for just the second time since they moved to North Carolina in 1997. After losing the first two games of its first-round series with Washington, Carolina has won seven of eight.
Game 4 is Friday night in Raleigh.
Josh Bailey had a goal and an assist and Devon Toews scored on the power play for New York. Robin Lehner stopped 34 shots, but his career record against the Hurricanes fell to 0-7.
DALLAS (AP) — Rookie Roope Hintz scored his fifth goal of the playoffs, Tyler Seguin and Alexander Radulov each had two assists and the Stars beat the St. Louis Blues to even the second-round series at two games each.
Rookie coach Jim Montgomery made a significant change by switching up his top two lines, and the move paid off for Dallas. Seguin skated on a line with Jason Dickinson and Mats Zuccarello. That put Hintz, instead of Seguin, with Radulov and captain Jaime Benn.
Dickinson, Jason Spezza and John Klingberg also scored for the Stars, who were down 1-0 only five minutes into the game. Zuccarello also had two assists, giving him six in the series.
Vladimir Tarasenko had a power-play goal for the Blues, who lost for the first time in their five road games this postseason. Robert Thomas also scored in the third period.
The Western Conference semifinal series returns to St. Louis for Game 5 on Friday night.
