Anders Lee was pissed Monday night, standing inside the New York Islanders locker room at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina.
And he had a right to be.
The Islanders had just blown a 3-1 lead midway through the third period and inexplicably lost Game 2 of their Eastern Conference First Round series to the Carolina Hurricanes 5-3. Their chance to steal home-ice advantage evaporated in a dizzying series of events, part of another epic collapse by the Islanders.
“This one f****** hurts,” Lee said. “I don’t have much words for you right now on that. We’re five minutes after what happened. Right now, we’re dealing with the sting.”
Incredibly, it was the ninth time this season that the Islanders blew a multi-goal lead in the third period.
But none came in as crucial a game as this.
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How the Islanders blew late lead, lost Game 2 to Hurricanes
Despite being badly outshot and outplayed, the Islanders managed to secure a 3-0 lead, capped by Lee’s power-play goal at 3:54 of the second period. The Hurricanes got one back before the period ended when Teuvo Teravainen answered on the power play at 13:01.
Though, the Hurricanes kept pressing in the third period, the Islanders held on to their two-goal advantage as the first 10 minutes ticked off the clock. But Carolina’s sustained pressure took its toll on New York and Seth Jarvis snuck a left-wing shot past Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov short side to make it 3-2 at 10:43.
Still, a massive road victory was in New York’s sight. But a huge swing over a nine-second span ultimately turned the game — and possibly the series — decidedly in Carolina’s favor.
With goalie Frederik Andersen pulled for a sixth attacker, the Hurricanes pulled even with 2:15 remaining in regulation when Sebastian Aho neatly deflected an Andrei Svechnikov shot past Varlamov. The roof was nearly blown off the arena by the rabid Hurricanes faithful.
But the home team wasn’t done scoring. And the Islanders collapse was soon complete.
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Carolina pushed the puck in deep behind the Islanders net on the following face-off, and Jordan Martinook muscled Noah Dobson off the puck before quickly wrapping the puck inside the near post nine seconds after Aho’s tying goal.
“Thirty seconds, not even, you’d like to have back,” a stunned Brock Nelson said in the hushed visitors dressing room.
Down 4-3, the Islanders were toast. Jake Guentzel’s empty-netter was followed by frustrated Islanders looking to fight.
Perhaps more fight was needed in their collective game, considering the Islanders finished with 12 shots on goal, just one in the third period when they were outshot 17-1.
Collapse complete. Hurricanes up 2-0 in the best-of-7 series. And one pissed New York captain.
“I think we’d rather get back at it,” Lee said about the two-day layoff before Game 3 on Thursday back home at UBS Arena. “We’ll take the two days, use them to our advantage. Get home, get in front of our fans, let them give us some more juice.
“This thing is long from over.”