Hurricanes defeat Islanders, close gap for wild card in East

NEW YORK -- Trevor van Riemsdyk broke a tie with 6:49 remaining in the third period, and the Carolina Hurricanes moved closer to the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference with a 4-3 win against the New York Islanders at Barclays Center on Sunday.
Victor Rask and Jaccob Slavin each had a goal and an assist for the Hurricanes (31-30-11), who are nine points behind the New Jersey Devils for the second wild card with 10 games remaining. Scott Darling made 26 saves to help Carolina end a three-game losing streak.

\[WATCH: All Hurricanes vs. Islanders highlights\]
"I think our group's got mental toughness, I really do," Hurricanes coach Bill Peters said. "We've had a few gut punches here this year, we've had a few here recently. You've got to pick yourself off the canvas and keep going, and that's what we did here today."
Anders Lee scored twice for New York (30-32-10), which has one win in its past 11 games (1-6-4) and is 12 points behind the Devils with 10 games left. Jaroslav Halak made 35 saves.

"We love coming to the rink together every day, and certainly it hasn't been a whole lot of fun. We're not getting the results, and that can beat you down," said Islanders captain John Tavares, who had three assists. "I think it's just important to focus on one day at a time and just try to obviously be professional, play with a lot of pride and play hard and try and find a way to get out of this thing."
Van Riemsdyk gave Carolina a 4-3 lead when he took a pass from Teuvo Teravainen and beat Halak with a slap shot from the slot for his second goal in 69 games this season.
"It's been a tough learning experience these last couple of games," van Riemsdyk said. "We don't like giving those up, but I think this time we did a good job of not panicking."
Lee tied it 3-3 with his second power-play goal of the game at 8:05 of the third period when he redirected Josh Bailey's feed from the right face-off circle for his NHL career-high 35th goal of the season.
Rask broke a 2-2 tie when he stuffed Slavin's rebound past Halak at 14:04 of the second period.

The Islanders erased Carolina's 2-0 lead when Bailey and Lee scored 1:53 apart in the second. Bailey redirected Ryan Pulock's slap shot from the right point at 10:29 before Lee scored on a power play at 12:22 to make it 2-2.
Slavin gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead at 2:50 of the first period when his wrist shot from the left point deflected off Adam Pelech and got past Halak. It was Slavin's third goal in the past five games.
Lee Stempniak made it 2-0 when he intercepted Nick Leddy's cross-ice feed from the Islanders blue line and sent a wrist shot from the slot past Halak at 4:44.
"It was a good comeback; they worked," Islanders coach Doug Weight said. "We had some good opportunities, we just couldn't get the last one. It was a tough one to give up with six minutes left, but the second period was good. They came out hard, and we arguably could have a couple more. The power play was good and we got back in the game.
"Just finding ways to let it slip away from us, but no, I'm not worried about [the team quitting]."

Goal of the game

Van Riemsdyk's goal at 13:11 of the third period.

Save of the game

Darling's save on a redirection by Tanner Fritz at 8:01 of the first period.

Highlight of the game

Stempniak's goal at 4:44 of the first period.

They said it

"We were on our toes early. We were getting in their zone and sustaining some pressure. I think we had a little bit of a bitter taste in our mouth from [Saturday] night, so we wanted to come out strong in the first period." -- Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin
"[Quit] is the last word that should be used. We take pride in what we do. We play hockey for a living. There's a lot of strong guys in this room that, you know what, this is pretty painful. It [stinks], but we come in and we work hard. We work extremely hard. We just don't have much to show for it, so that's why it feels as bad as it is." -- Islanders forward Anders Lee

Need to know

The Hurricanes were without defenseman Noah Hanifin, who sustained an upper-body injury during a 4-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday. He was replaced by Klas Dahlbeck. … Stempniak played his 900th NHL game. … Lee's second goal was his 200th NHL point. … The Islanders have scored five power-play goals in their past two games.

What's next

Hurricanes: Host the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; FS-CR, SNW, NHL.TV)
Islanders: Host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; SN, TVAS, MSG+, ATTSN-PT, NHL.TV)