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RALEIGH, N.- In the end, the Islanders were beaten at their own game and it ended their season.
From sweep to sweep, the Islanders were beaten 5-2 at the hands of the Hurricanes in Game 4 of their second round playoff on Friday night. So, after the Islanders eliminated the Penguins in four games in the first round, they only lasted four more. Caroline became clearer from the beginning to the end of the series.
With 10 days between sets, the Islanders became the first team since the 1993 Sabers to sweep a series of the first round and then sweep the next round.
"You go to every game [with a] feel, said coach Barry Trotz before the game. "There are times when you know you're going to play well tonight and you usually get the result. There are times when you like "I do not know if we are here tonight".
"The current meaning is that we are ready to play a game 7."
Well, they never even sent the series back to Brooklyn for a fifth game, and team president Lou Lamoriello has many questions as the club enters a monumental off-season that could see a reshuffle major. Some shortcomings were reported in this series, including the fact that the Islanders could really use some high-end skills in advance to complete their defensive style under Trotz.
But all these questions will eventually be answered. That night, the group that achieved the best result since the start of the training camp in September finally wrapped it up and said goodbye to a season that very few of them saw until May.
After Lamoriello took over in the summer and Trotz was hired just after his Stanley Cup winning campaign, the Islanders had 103 points and placed second in the Metropolitan Division. A rediscovered professionalism has been established in the organization and this has been reflected with a buttoned style on the ice.
But by the time they started the third period Friday, they had lost 4-1 and the harsh reality of the impending summer was watching them in the face. It was solidified when Andrei Svechnikov raised the score to 5-1 for the Hurricanes with less than five minutes to play, which set the crowd on fire and sent the Islanders home.
There was little celebration when the Islanders scored a nil goal for Brock Nelson, beating substitute goalkeeper Curtis McElhinney at just over a minute.
The match could not have started better for the Islanders, who quieted the 19,495 spectators – about 400 people on a stand-out – when Mat Barzal scored a power-play goal at 2:30 of the game. But the good impression was short-lived Carolina hit just over two minutes later with a power play goal, awarded to Sebastian Aho but granted by Islanders defender Adam Pelech.
The beginning of the second period was when things started to go crazy for the Islanders.
The Hurricanes scored at 2:11 when Teuvo Teravainen had a great game of pass, giving them a score of 2-1. Just 66 seconds later, Greg McKegg hit a loose puck at the feet of unsuspecting goalkeeper Robin Lehner, giving Carolina a 3-1 lead.
Trotz had been deliberately obtuse in discussing the goalkeeper that he was going to start in this game and he had decided to stay with Lehner, who had played in the first seven games of the season. But at 3:17 of the second, Trotz called a timeout and sent Lehner on the bench, bringing Thomas Greiss to try to restart his team.
That was not beneficial, as the irresistible Justin Williams scored his 100th career point beating Greiss with a setback at 8:51, allowing his team to take a 4-1 lead at the third period.
The Islanders kept their heads high when they headed to the locker room, but it was obvious that only 20 minutes of hockey was reserved for them until the end of their season.
"We do not win this game and we go home and we are dead," Trotz said. "That's what it is."
And that's it.
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