ELMONT, N.Y. — The New York Islanders were undisciplined in their crushing 5-2 Game 4 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes at home Sunday. But when they weren’t earning their trips to the penalty box, they felt the officials were finding reasons to send them there anyway.
The Islanders took four first-period penalties, while the Hurricanes had three. Coach Lane Lambert disputed two of them, both critical.
At 2:41 of the first period, forward Zach Parise was called for goalie interference after falling on Carolina’s Antti Raanta (27 saves). Replays showed Hurricanes defenseman Jalen Chatfield might have shoved Parise into Raanta.
“I thought he got pushed into the goaltender,” Lambert said. “Sometimes that happens.”
The penalty preceded a boarding call against defenseman Ryan Pulock. The Hurricanes scored a 5-on-3 power-play goal by Seth Jarvis for the 1-0 lead.
“I mean, you got an excited building, you try to feed off that energy, and all of a sudden you find yourself killing a 5-on-3 right away and they bury one,” said Parise, who said he felt he was pushed into Raanta. “It’s a little deflating. You’ve got to overcome different things, whether it’s calls you don’t like or bounces that don’t go your way.”
It appeared the Islanders might get a 5-on-3 of their own moments later. With Jesperi Kotkaniemi in the penalty box, defenseman Brent Burns cross-checked the Islanders’ Mathew Barzal against the boards. The on-ice officials whistled a penalty on Burns but added a minor penalty to Barzal for what they felt was a dive.
“He got embellishment and I don’t understand that,” Lambert said.
Those calls and others led to a disjointed first period that did the Islanders no favors.
“We created some good momentum, but tonight we were killing and killing,” New York captain Anders Lee said. “The penalties tonight just kind of killed our 5-on-5 flow. But there were some mistakes out there tonight that we made that we haven’t been making this series and it bit us.”
In the end, the Islanders said it was their own lack of discipline that cost them Game 4. That included a roughing penalty by Matt Martin at the end of the first period that led to a Martin Necas power-play goal 1:15 into the second period to make it 2-0.
“I thought we took a couple undisciplined penalties, no question,” said Lambert, who limited Martin to three shifts in the second period after the Necas goal. “It totally slowed our momentum. The power-play goal they scored, that second one, was a real stinger.”
Overall, the Islanders gave the Hurricanes five power plays in Game 4 and were 0-for-3 on their own power plays.
Jarvis said the Hurricanes were effective in not retaliating against the Islanders.
“You just want to stay out of it. You can’t retaliate because that’s what the refs are looking for — maybe not the first one, but the return punch,” he said. “So, you have to swallow your pride, eat it a little bit and just try to score on the power play.”
After managing only one goal in Game 3, the Hurricanes found their offense again and continued to fight through injuries to score. Already missing scorers Max Pacioretty, Andrei Svechnikov and Teuvo Teravainen to injury, they lost forward Jack Drury to injury in the first period after just two shifts.
Game 5 is scheduled for Tuesday night in Raleigh, with the Islanders one loss away from elimination.
“We’ll regroup here, go do a job and do our best to make sure we have another game in this building,” Lee said.