With Monday's collapse behind them, the New York Islanders take home ice for the first time against the Carolina Hurricanes in their First Round series.
EAST MEADOW, NY -- With Monday's collapse behind them, the New York Islanders will take home ice for the first time against the Carolina Hurricanes in their First-Round series.
Puck drop from UBS Arena is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Morning Skate Updates:
The Islanders will make one lineup change, potentially two, for Thursday's game.
Most notably, Ilya Sorokin (25-19-12, 3.01 GAA, .909 SV%) will return to the crease after Semyon Varlamov started the first two games of the series.
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He started all six games against Carolina in last year's postseason matchup, pitching a 2.60 GAA and .924 SV%.
Lifetime against the Hurricanes, he is 5-9-1 with a 2.92 GAA and .914 SV%, most recently letting up three goals on 33 shots in a loss on March 19.
The two probable lineup changes are at forward. Hudson Fasching will likely slot in for Simon Holmstrom on line two, skating alongside Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri as he did for the final game of the season.
The other change depends on Matt Martin's availability for Thursday's game.
He missed Wednesday's practice due to maintenance, with rookie Ruslan Iskhakov skating in his place.
The forward made his NHL debut in the team's season finale against the Pittsburgh Penguins and could play Game 3, but Patrick Roy did not confirm this change.
Frederik Andersen (13-2-0, 1.84 GAA, .932 SV%) is expected to take the crease once again for Carolina. He made nine stops on 12 shots in Carolina's win on Monday. In his career against the Islanders, including the playoffs, he is 13-4-1 with a 2.58 GAA and .910 SV%.
Carolina is forced to make a change on its blue line for Thursday's game. Defenseman Brett Pesce will likely miss the rest of the series with a lower-body injury; Tony DeAngelo will likely slot in for his spot.
Game 2 Recap:
The Islanders were seemingly in a good position halfway through Game 2. Despite getting held off the shot board for most of the frame, Kyle Palmieri and Bo Horvat gave the Islanders a 2-0 lead at the end of the first period. Anders Lee extended the lead early in the second, but that was one of the final shots the Islanders got all game as the Hurricanes dominated the remainder of regulation.
Jack Drury made it 3-1 before the end of the second, and Seth Jarvis made it a one-goal game inside the final 10 minutes of regulation. With the game entering the dying stages, Carolina put the hammer down on the Islanders, with Sebastian Aho and Jordan Martinook scoring nine seconds apart to give the Hurricanes the lead for the first time. After a Jake Guentzel empty netter, Carolina finished a home sweep with a 5-3 win.
Players To Watch:
Palmieri and Lee's goals gave them their 10th career postseason goals as a member of the Islanders and third against Carolina in the playoffs. Palmieri scored the game-winner in last year's Game 3 at UBS Arena and had two goals and three assists in last year's series.
The two became the 30th and 31st players, respectively, to record 10 goals in postseason play for the franchise. Lee also has points in each of the first two games of the series, adding an assist on Kyle MacLean's lone goal in Game 1.
Horvat and Mathew Barzal connected on the former's first red light of the series on Monday. Both went scoreless in Game 1 despite strong postseason track records. Barzal has 15 goals and 26 assists, 41 points, in 57 postseason games, while Horvat has 13 goals and six assists, 19 points, in 31 playoff contests.
Brock Nelson, who had an assist on Monday, has the most regular season goals and points lifetime against Carolina with 14 and 27, respectively. Lee has the most assists against the Hurricanes in his career, with 16 in the regular season.
Aho's game-tying goal in Game 2 was his seventh red light in the postseason against New York. He leads active Hurricanes in postseason red lights against the Islanders, as well as points with 13. Among franchise leaders, he tops the team across the board with 24 goals, 36 assists and 60 points in 65 postseason games.
Jarvis had a three-point game on Monday, tallying a goal and two assists. The forward also had a two-goal game in last year's Game 4 against the Islanders at UBS Arena.
Jordan Staal leads the team across the board on offense against New York with 16 goals, 33 assists, and 49 points in regular season action.
New York Islanders Projected Lines:
Casey Cizikas -- Bo Horvat -- Mathew Barzal
Hudson Fasching -- Brock Nelson -- Kyle Palmieri
Anders Lee -- Jean-Garbiel Pageau -- Pierre Engvall
Matt Martin -- Kyle MacLean -- Cal Clutterbuck
Alexander Romanov -- Noah Dobson
Adam Pelech -- Ryan Pulock
Mike Reilly -- Robert Bortuzzo
Ilya Sorokin
Semyon Varlamov
Carolina Hurricanes Projected Lines:
Jake Guentzel -- Sebastian Aho -- Seth Jarvis
Teuvo Teravainen -- Jesperi Kotkaniemi - Martin Necas
Jordan Martinook - Jordan Staal - Andrei Svechnikov
Jack Drury - Evgeni Kuznetsov - Stefan Noesen
Jaccob Slavin -- Brent Burns
Brady Skjei -- Tony DeAngelo
Dmitry Orlov -- Jalen Chatfield
Frederik Andersen
Pyotr Kochetkov
How To Watch:
Locally, the game will air on MSGSN; the contest will air nationally on ESPN2. On the radio, Game 3 will air on 88.7 FM WRHU, 103.9 LI News Radio, and 1050 AM ESPN.