Hurricanes defeat Islanders in Game 1 of Eastern 1st Round

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Carolina Hurricanes scored two power-play goals in a 2-1 win against the New York Islanders in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference First Round at PNC Arena on Monday.

Sebastian Aho and Stefan Noesen scored, and Brent Burns and Martin Necas each had two assists for the Hurricanes, the No. 1 seed in the Metropolitan Division. Antti Raanta made 25 saves.
"It's nice to get ahead obviously and play with the lead," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "That game went pretty much how we thought it would. They made great saves, we had good saves. Both teams were going pretty hard."

Ryan Pulock scored, and Ilya Sorokin made 35 saves for the Islanders, the first wild card in the East, who went 0-for-4 on the power play.
"I thought there was certainly some positives to the game," New York coach Lane Lambert said. "Got better as the game went on. We just have to get ready for Game 2."
The best-of-7 series will continue here Wednesday.
RELATED: [Complete Hurricanes vs Islanders series coverage]
The Hurricanes took a 1-0 lead five seconds into their first power play at 3:47 of the first period. Aho one-timed a shot from the right face-off circle off a pass from Burns.
"Obviously, it helps. Big goal," Aho said. "Gives you a little confidence. I felt the power play was good tonight overall."

Anders Lee had two of New York's best scoring chances in the first period, but Raanta fended off his redirection at the top of the crease at 8:27, then stopped Lee's shot from the low slot at 9:42 during an Islanders power play.
"A couple shots I couldn't see, but our guys were blocking those," Raanta said. "In the first period, I got a couple good saves to get [me] into the game. Most of the time, we played really well in front of the net, so I just needed to make the first save."
Noesen extended it to 2-0 at 2:27 of the second period. Necas made a no-look backhand pass to Burns, who one-timed a shot from the point that Noesen tipped in front.
"The puck didn't stay on our sticks too long," Necas said. "It's all about confidence. You get a couple touches on the power play, and the guys who are supposed to play with the puck more get the feeling of 5-on-5 better. It was good momentum on the power play."

The Islanders answered 24 seconds later to cut it to 2-1 at 2:51. Pulock partially fanned on a wrist shot in the right circle, but the puck went off the shaft of Raanta's stick and into the net.
"They came hard," New York defenseman Noah Dobson said. "Once you got [past] the nerves, I thought we settled into the game [at] 5-on-5 well. In the second period, we had some really good zone shifts. There's not much space out there. We're going to have to create it ourselves, but there's some stuff in that game we can build on."
Islanders forward Mathew Barzal had two shots on goal and a blocked shot in 21:12 of ice time after missing the final 23 regular-season games with a lower-body injury. His return is expected to boost the power play, which went 1-for-19 in the last nine games of the regular season. Barzal had 19 points (four goals, 15 assists) with the man-advantage in 58 regular-season games.
"We were without Barzal for a long period of time, and when we had him, we had some success," Lambert said. "We had some good looks certainly early on in the power play. We had some chances to score and just couldn't find the back of the net."
NOTES: In eight home playoff games dating to the start of last season's playoffs, Raanta is 7-0 with a 1.16 goals-against average, a .958 save percentage and one shutout. He was 11-0-1 with 2.06 GAA, a .916 save percentage and three shutouts in 12 home games (all starts) in the regular season. … Aho scored his 19th Stanley Cup Playoff goal, tying Eric Staal for the most in Hartford Whalers/Hurricanes history. … Pulock had a game-high nine hits. … Islanders defenseman Samuel Bolduc was plus-1 with two shots on goal and a hit in 8:51 of ice time in his playoff debut.