Islanders spiral farther from playoffs as skid hits five with loss to Hurricanes
RALEIGH, N.C.— In the Eastern Conference’s wild-card race, currently being run in three-legged fashion, the question, ‘Why not us?’ is usually answered by whoever asks in short order.Behold this weekend, the Islanders’ answer.Why not them? Well, how about a power play that scored in consecutive games for the first time all season, yet still allowed a crucial shorthanded goal during a four-minute double minor on Sunday with the game tied? Or how about the two poor starts, 24 hours apart, which put them down 3-0 in Tampa and 2-0 in Carolina, respectively? Or the goaltending, which coach Patrick Roy outright said wasn’t good enough after Marcus Hogberg stopped just 24 of 30 shots against the Hurricanes?After Sunday’s 6-4 defeat to the ‘Canes capped an 0-2 road trip and extended a burgeoning losing streak to five, you could look at the standings, too.
The Rangers won Saturday night and the Canadiens won Sunday, so the Islanders’ gap is now three points to the playoff cutline as they come home for four of their next five games in desperate, desperate need of wins.“Played well but we didn’t find a way to win,” Tony DeAngelo told The Post.“It really doesn’t matter if you play like crap or play great.
You just gotta find ways to win.”Like on Saturday, there were moments and stretches on Sunday where they looked like a match for Carolina.They led 3-2 early in the second after Pierre Engvall scored his second goal of the evening, a laser off the rush, and all the momentum was at the Islanders’ backs.
Instead of putting their foot down, the Islanders let the ‘Canes right back up.Max Tsyplakov took a needless penalty for hooking, which Sebastian Aho converted for the tying goal, wiring a one-timer past Hogberg from the right circle at 8:35 of the period.Then after a heroic shift from Alexander Romanov, who cleared the puck off the line then took a high stick from Jalen Chatfield, the Islanders’ power play showed up as the worst version of...