RALEIGH, N.C. — The Carolina Hurricanes put an old goalie in net and welcomed back their teenage draft pick. With the game tied, another young star set up their graying captain’s go-ahead goal.
That blend of young and old has the surging Hurricanes on the verge of a sweep.
Sebastian Aho assisted on Justin Williams’ key goal with 9:45 remaining, and Carolina beat the New York Islanders 5-2 on Wednesday night to take a 3-0 lead in their second-round series.
Teuvo Teravainen had two goals, including an empty-netter with 57.1 seconds remaining, Justin Faulk also scored and Aho added another empty-net goal with 4.8 seconds to play.
The wild-card Hurricanes — in the playoffs for the first time in a decade — moved within a victory of a berth in the Eastern Conference final and took a 3-0 series lead for just the second time since they moved to North Carolina in 1997.
After losing the first two games of its first-round series with Washington, Carolina has won seven of eight and will try for the sweep Friday night.
“The next game’s always the toughest,” coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “They’re not going to go away. We know that. These games have all been tight — one-goal games, essentially, and it’s going to be like that on Friday.”
Josh Bailey had a goal and an assist and Devon Toews scored on the power play to spark a dormant Islanders offense. New York had scored one goal in the first two games of this series and its average of 2½ goals in its previous six postseason games was the lowest among the eight teams that are still playing.
But it wasn’t enough to keep them from a precarious spot. After sweeping Pittsburgh in the first round, the Islanders are in danger of being swept. Only four teams in NHL history have won a series after losing the first three games.
“It’s a big mountain, but we’ve dug in many times this year when people doubted us,” coach Barry Trotz said. “So we’re just going to have to dig in. … We have to earn the right to keep playing. That’s it. It’s do or die.”
STARS 4, BLUES 1
DALLAS — Rookie Roope Hintz scored his fifth goal of the playoffs, Tyler Seguin and Alexander Radulov each had two assists and the Stars beat the St. Louis Blues to even the second-round series at two games each.
Rookie coach Jim Montgomery made a significant change by switching up his top two lines, and the move paid off for Dallas. Seguin skated on a line with Jason Dickinson and Mats Zuccarello. That put Hintz, instead of Seguin, with Radulov and captain Jaime Benn.
Dickinson, Jason Spezza and John Klingberg also scored for the Stars, who were down 1-0 only five minutes into the game. Zuccarello also had two assists, giving him six in the series.
Vladimir Tarasenko had a power-play goal for the Blues, who lost for the first time in their five road games this postseason. Robert Thomas also scored in the third period.
The Western Conference semifinal series returns to St. Louis for Game 5 on Friday night.