Fast’s goal lifts Hurricanes past Islanders in overtime

RALEIGH, N.C. — Jesper Fast took a cross-ice pass from Jordan Staal and buried it past Ilya Sorokin at 5:03 of overtime to lift the Carolina Hurricanes past the New York Islanders 4-3 on Wednesday night, taking a 2-0 lead in their first-round playoff series.

Staal’s pass came from the left side near the boards and found Fast loose on the right for the finish over Sorokin’s pad, ending a game that had seen Carolina blow a two-goal lead before rallying to force overtime.

Paul Stastny, Stefan Noesen and Jaccob Slavin also scored for the Hurricanes, while Antti Raanta had 23 saves.

Kyle Palmieri, Mathew Barzal and Brock Nelson scored for the Islanders, and Sorokin finished with 32 saves.

The Hurricanes took the series opener Monday night, scoring twice with the man advantage — their first multi-goal game on the power play since early March — before the teams shared a scoreless 37-minute grind to the horn in Carolina’s 2-1 win.

This time, Carolina grabbed an early lead on Stastny’s deflection from the top of the crease then pushed ahead 2-0 on a bouncing own-goal off the stick of the Islanders’ Sebastian Aho, coming off Noesen’s dump-in on a power play.

Yet the Islanders responded with three straight goals, including Barzal — who missed the last 23 regular-season games with a lower-body injury — converting a bad open-ice turnover from Brady Skjei by turning around Brett Pesce and whipping the puck past Raanta in the final minute of the second.

Nelson made it 3-2 when he took a pass ahead from Palmieri, got past Martin Necas and beat Raanta from the left side at 9:18 of the third. Slavin answered from a steep left-corner angle roughly three minutes later, bouncing the puck off the right side of Sorokin’s helmet and inside the far post to ultimately send it to overtime.

The clocks in PNC Arena had a second-period hiccup by freezing with 8:16 left in the period. That forced the public-address announcer to provide updates for every 30 seconds elapsed through continuous play until the clock was restored to working order during a stoppage with 4:24 left.

SIREN SOUNDERS

Former Hurricanes forward Bates Battaglia sounded the pregame “storm warning” siren for the team to take the ice from the locker room.

The list included North Carolina men’s basketball player R.J. Davis for the second intermission. That continued the representation of area Atlantic Coast Conference college programs that began with North Carolina State men’s basketball player D.J. Burns Jr. and Duke football coach Mike Elko for Game 1.

The series shifts to New York for two games, starting with Game 3 on Friday.