NY Islanders winless streak hits five after latest playoff setback in Carolina

As they did the day before, the New York Islanders fought back multiple times but ultimately fell short in a 6-4 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday night at Lenovo Center. With the loss, the Islanders (32-31-10) have now dropped five straight games (0-3-2) and remain three points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

Pierre Engvall scored twice for the first time in his career, while Kyle Palmieri and Anders Lee also found the back of the net for New York. Marcus Hogberg made 24 saves in his first start since March 22, but the Islanders couldn’t hold onto a 3-2 second-period lead as Carolina (45-24-4) surged to a 4-3 at the end of two periods before putting the game away in the third period after the Isles tied it.

The game started on a rough note for the Islanders, as Carolina struck twice in a 13-second span early in the first period. Mark Jankowski tapped in a backdoor pass at 4:41, and Logan Stankoven redirected a feed past Hogberg at 4:54 to give the Hurricanes a quick 2-0 lead. However, goals by Engvall and Palmieri tied the game and the Isles took the lead 1:37 into the second-period on Engvall's second of the game, unassisted. However, the Canes would tie the game on a power-play goal from Sebastian Aho and then strike again on special teams when Jaccob Slavin forced a turnover, setting up a short-handed goal for Seth Jarvis at 17:29 to put the Hurricanes back on top.

Lee's 27th of the season off a beautiful backhand pass from Bo Horvat tied the game at 4-4, but the Hurricanes' Dmitry Orlov fired a slap shot through traffic at 9:19 for the go-ahead goal. Jarvis then iced the game with his second of the night, finishing a feed from Aho with 2:46 remaining. Pyotr Kochetkov made 27 saves in the win for Carolina, who leads the NHL in home wins this season.

The Islanders will look to break their five-game winless streak and build some momentum for the final nine games of the season when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night. Face-off from UBS Arena is set for 7:30 PM EDT.