Hurricanes defeat Islanders in overtime after getting away with blatant high stick
It's another day in the NHL playoffs, which of course means we have another officiating controversy.
NHL referees notoriously swallow the whistles in spring, and Wednesday's victim of a painful no-call was the New York Islanders, who fell 4-3 in overtime to the Carolina Hurricanes on Jesper Fast's goal ... a tally that seemingly should have never happened.
Just moments before Fast's goal, the Hurricanes' Jordan Martinook caught Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield in the face with his stick, which should have triggered a New York power play. Except officials missed the call (or chose to ignore it). Mayfield clutched at his face and appeared to be out of position as the Hurricanes quickly reorganized, with Jordan Staal zipping a cross-ice pass to Fast for the winner.
Mayfield and Islander coach Lane Lambert both expressed their displeasure with the non-call on the ice. Mayfield didn't meet with the media because he was receiving medical attention, an Islanders spokesperson told The Athletic's Kevin Kurz.
"You know what? I just saw a snippet of it," Lambert said after the game. “Clearly (Mayfield) had some issues and was trying to recover.”
The Islanders were assessed four penalties (12 minutes) to the Hurricanes' one, and Carolina had a 6-0 advantage in power-play opportunities during the game.
“Did you get any explanation from the league or the refs as to the incident with Mayfield right before (the Hurricanes' overtime goal)?” a reporter asked Lambert after the game.
“No,” he said flatly.
“Is that bothersome that they potentially missed a call right before the goal?”
“Yeah,” he said.
The series now shifts to Long Island for the first playoff games ever at the Islanders' UBS Arena. Carolina leads the series 2-0.
“Right now we just have to worry about the next game,” Lambert said.
Despite having the edge in power plays and securing the victory, Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour was also livid over a non-call on a play that will knock forward Teuvo Teravainen out of the series.
“He’s out,” Brind’Amour said. “He got slashed, 4:25 marker. He broke his hand. With the puck, takes the shot, the guy absolutely tomahawk chops him, absolutely.
“And I know we had all of the power plays, so you’re not going to make it a 5-on-3. Go take a look at the video. And he’s out for the series. … He has to have surgery tomorrow. There you go.”
More: Sebastian Aho scores for Hurricanes. No, not the one on the team.
Contributing: Associated Press
Panthers 6, Bruins 3
BOSTON (AP) – Brandon Montour scored twice and the Florida Panthers had four third-period goals to beat the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Bruins 6-3 on Wednesday night and send Boston to its first loss in 10 games.
The Panthers – the NHL’s top regular-season team last season – tied the best-of-seven series and head home for Games 3 and 4 on Friday and Sunday. There will be a Game 5 back in Boston on Wednesday.
Montour scored 22 seconds into the third period to break a 2-2 tie, Carter Verhaeghe added an insurance goal, then Montour scored again for Florida and Eetu Luostarinen added an empty netter with 2:25 to play to make it 6-2.
Alex Lyon stopped 34 shots, and Sam Bennett and Eric Staal also scored for the Panthers, who seemed overmatched by the NHL-best Bruins in a 3-1 series-opening loss.
Brad Marchand scored a short-handed goal, and Tyler Bertuzzi and Taylor Hall also scored for the Bruins, who won their last eight – and 15 of their last 16 – regular-season games while setting NHL records with 65 wins and 135 points. Linus Ullmark made 24 saves.
Stars 7, Wild 3
DALLAS (AP) – Roope Hintz scored a short-hander on Dallas’ first shot and added two more goals after that, Evgenii Dadonov scored twice and the Stars beat the Minnesota Wild 7-3 on Wednesday night to even the first-round series at a game each.
Dadonov and Hintz each scored their second goals of the game in a 48-second span late in the second period for a 6-3 lead. That was the last of three pairs of quick scoring goals in that middle period – two by the Stars that sandwiched an even-quicker scoring duo by the Wild.
Hintz, who also had an assist, secured his first career hat trick with a power-play goal with just under eight minutes left, when Miro Heiskanen got his fourth assist of the game. Hintz is the first player with a short-handed, power-play and even-strength goal in a playoff game since Tyler Johnson did it for Tampa Bay against the New York Rangers in 2015.
The Dallas scoring onslaught came against three-time Stanley Cup champion goalie Marc-André Fleury, who got the start even after 24-year-old Filip Gustavsson made his playoff debut with a franchise-record 51 saves in the series opener the Wild won 3-2 in double overtime.
Game 3 is Friday night in Minnesota.
Oilers 4, Kings 2
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) – Klim Kostin broke a tie at 2:20 of the third period and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Los Angeles Kings 4-2 on Wednesday night in Game 2 to tie the first-round Western Conference playoff series.
Leon Draisaitl had a goal and two assists to help Edmonton rebound from a 4-3 overtime loss in the opener. Derek Ryan and Evander Kane – into an empty net – also scored for the Oilers.
NHL scoring champion Connor McDavid had an assist and Stuart Skinner made 23 saves in his first NHL playoff victory.
Joonas Korpisalo stopped 33 shots for Los Angeles. Gabriel Vilardi and Philip Danault scored for the Kings. Vilardi returned after missing the last nine games of the regular season and first game of the series because of a lower-body injury.
Game 3 is Friday night in Los Angeles.