NEW YORK (AP) — Defensemen Brent Burns and Dmitry Orlov got Carolina off to a fast start and the Hurricanes held on to beat the New York Islanders 3-2 on Thursday night for a 3-0 lead in the first-round series.
Sebastian Aho also scored for the Hurricanes and Andrei Svechnikov had two assists. Frederik Andersen stopped 29 shots. Carolina won for eighth time in nine games at UBS Arena, which opened for the 2021-22 season.
Brock Nelson and Pierre Engvall scored for the Islanders. They are a loss away from being eliminated by Carolina in the first round for the second straight year.
Ilya Sorokin, getting the start after Semyon Varlamov went in the first two games, was pulled in the second period after giving up three goals on 14 shots. Varlamov came on and stopped all eight shots he faced.
Game 4 is Saturday in New York.
PANTHERS 5, LIGHTNING 3
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves, Matthew Tkachuk scored twice and Florida beat Tampa Bay to take a 3-0 lead in the first-round playoff series.
Brandon Montour, Sam Reinhart and Steven Lorentz also scored for the Panthers, who will seek a sweep Saturday night in Tampa.
Tkachuk had a first-period goal and added an empty-netter with 32 seconds left.
Steven Stamkos, Tyler Motte and Nicholas Paul scored for Tampa Bay, with Paul cutting it to 4-3 with 5:10 left. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 26 shots.
