The Hurricanes took a 2-0 lead, scoring on two of their first three shots on Sunday. Derek Stepan opened the scoring on Carolina's first shot of the game, as Noah Dobson turned the puck over in front of the Islanders' net before Stepan snapped it through Semyon Varlamov at 2:55.
Carolina extended their lead to 2-0 with a power-play goal. Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov used some quick passing to funnel to the puck down low to Seth Jarvis, who made a quick move at the side of the net before roofing the puck at 8:09.
HURRICANES 5, ISLANDERS 2
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The quick strikes nullified the Islanders early chances, as Otto Koivula made a quick cut across the Carolina crease, but was denied by Antti Raanta. Casey Cizikas had another quality look on Raanta early, while Brock Nelson kept-and-shot on a two-on-one that was swallowed up by the Hurricanes goaltender.
Ross Johnston got the Islanders on the board before the end of the period, as Matt Martin's centering feed caromed off the hulking forward and in. With a secondary assist, Casey Cizikas notched his 200th career point.
Ryan Pulock evened the score late in the second period, beating a screened Pytor Kochetkov with a wrist shot for a power-play goal at 15:27. Pulock scored on the first shot on Kochetkov, who came in relief of Antti Raanta, who left the game after appearing to tweak a lower-body injury on a wraparound in the second period. Kochetkov was playing in just his second NHL game after making his debut on Saturday. Pulock's goal was his fifth of the season and snapped a 12-game goal drought for the defenseman.
The Hurricanes retook the lead in the third period, as Max Domi found a soft spot in front of the Islanders net and buried a Teuvo Teravainen feed from below the goal line at 5:40. The Islanders weren't able to climb back into the game after Domi's go-ahead goal, getting outshot by the Hurricanes 15-5 in the final frame.
Carolina iced the game with a pair of empty-netters in the final three minutes. Despite Sunday being the Islanders fifth game in eight days, the veteran team was not using the compressed schedule as an excuse.
"I thought we played them straight up," Head Coach Barry Trotz said. "Today through two periods I thought we were really quite good even though we had one turnover that put us behind the eight ball, I thought we battled back… There are still cracks in our game and in the third period they kicked it up to a pretty good level."