After defeating the Montreal Canadiens Wednesday night to clinch a playoff spot, the New York Islanders had to wait 24 hours to find out their first-round matchup. Now they know.
After defeating the Montreal Canadiens Wednesday night to clinch a playoff spot, the New York Islanders had to wait 24 hours to find out their first-round matchup.
Entering Thursday night, the Islanders had a one-point lead over the Florida Panthers for the top wild-card spot. The Carolina Hurricanes were battling the New Jersey Devils for first place in the Metropolitan Division.
As fate would have it, the Panthers and Hurricanes met for Game 82, as a Florida regulation win would mean the Islanders would have to head to Boston for round one.
Anything but a regulation win would mean that the Islanders would trek to Carolina.
After the sixty-minute affair, the Hurricanes came away victorious 6-4 as the stage is set.
The Islanders are heading to Raleigh to face a team they went 1-3-0 against in the regular season, being outscored 12-9.
As you likely know, the first two games will be played at PNC Arena, where the Islanders went 1-1-0 this season.
The first meeting of the season came down in Carolina back on Oct. 28, where the Islanders exploded offensively while netminder Ilya Sorokin shut the door in a 6-2 win.
Brock Nelson, who finished his season with 36 goals, scored his first two goals of the season that night.
Nelson scored three goals over their four meetings.
Although the Islanders were dominated, possession-wise, in their second game in Raleigh back on Apr. 2, Sorokin stood tall in a 2-1 loss.
The Islanders dropped both games at UBS Arena, being outscored 8-2 in two ugly losses.
The last time these two teams met in the postseason was back in the second round of 2019, as after New York swept the Pittsburgh Penguins, they were swept by Carolina.
We are still awaiting the schedule release, but with a concert happening at UBS Arena Thursday and Saturday, it looks like Game 3 and Game 4 would be Friday & Sunday.