Islanders hold off Hurricanes in Game 5, stay alive in East 1st Round

RALEIGH, N.C. --The New York Islanders stayed alive in the Eastern Conference First Round with a 3-2 win against the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 5 at PNC Arena on Tuesday.

The Hurricanes still lead the best-of-7 series 3-2. Game 6 will be in New York on Friday.
"I think you've seen this from this group a lot this year. It's a resilient group," Islanders captain Anders Lee said. "You know, our road just to get in wasn't that easy, we had to pull ourselves out of a hole after some tough stretches, but we believe in one another, we believe in this group and what we can do and how we can play. And that was no different coming into this evening."
Pierre Engvall and Brock Nelson each had a goal and an assist, and Ilya Sorokin made 34 saves for the Islanders, who are the first wild card from the East.
"They come out hard in this building," New York coach Lane Lambert said. "We knew they were going to come out hard. We knew [Sorokin would] have to make a few saves, and he did.
"There was no, for lack of a better term, panic in our game. We just made sure that we stuck to our plan. We knew we'd need a couple of saves going home, but certainly we did that. We just played pretty steady and pretty solid and we battled."

Paul Stastny and Sebastian Aho scored for the Hurricanes, who are the No. 1 seed from the Metropolitan Division. Antti Raanta made 19 saves.
"I like the way we played. We played hard," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "We had a couple mistakes that cost us, but there wasn't a ton of those. It was just the bounces didn't go our way."
RELATED: [Complete Hurricanes vs Islanders series coverage]
Engvall put the Islanders ahead 1-0 at 10:27 of the first period. Nelson knocked down a clearing attempt from Brent Burns and sent a backhand pass to Engvall, who scored five-hole on Raanta from all alone in front.
"[Engvall] protects the puck and makes a lot of nice little plays," Nelson said. "Tonight he did a pretty good job hounding it, finding himself in good spots, and generating chances by himself with his speed."

Stefan Noesen appeared to tie it on a power play at 18:11, but Lambert challenged the play for offside, and the call was reversed after a video review.
Nelson then made it 2-0 at 3:16 of the second period, batting the puck out of the air after Engvall's shot from the slot hit Aho in the face.
"I just kind of didn't know what hit me," said Aho, who left to get stitches before returning later in the period. "It came pretty quickly there. [Engvall] was probably not aiming for my face either. It's hockey. It happens. A few stitches there and right back at it."

Stastny cut it to 2-1 at 13:10 when he redirected Jalen Chatfield's one-timer from the right point five-hole on Sorokin.
Mathew Barzal responded to make it 3-1 at 18:05 during a 4-on-4. He elected to keep the puck on a 2-on-1 with Bo Horvat and scored glove side from the left face-off circle.
"Bo was a one-timer. Any time you can get a guy with his goal-scoring ability the puck in that situation, it's a good chance," Barzal said. "But I thought Burns did a good job of taking the pass away, so it forced me to shoot, and I just picked a spot."

Barzal's chance came after Horvat stripped Martin Necas of the puck at New York's blue line.
"I made a turnover there. It was a big goal for them," Necas said. "I have to learn from that. There's nothing else to do but come out for the next game and be ready."
Aho got the Hurricanes to within 3-2 at 10:28 of the third period. He skated into the right circle and scored with a one-timer off a pass from Seth Jarvis, who won a puck battle with Adam Pelech behind the net.
"It's supposed to be hard this time of year," Aho said. "We were ready for a long series. It's no big deal. Obviously, just go back to Long Island and try to do it another night there."
NOTES:Engvall's goal was his first in the Stanley Cup Playoffs (22nd game). … The Islanders blocked 22 shots; the Hurricanes blocked four. … Aho has six points (three goals, three assists) in the series. … Frederik Andersen backed up Raanta after missing the previous three games with an illness.