RALEIGH, N.C. — Scott Mayfield was still screaming on the refs after the puck went in the web.
Jesper Fast had scored the additional time winner to present the Hurricanes a 2-0 lead within the series, but Mayfield wanted a proof.
Based on Islanders coach Lane Lambert, it didn’t sound just like the Islanders got one.
Right before Fast ended Wednesday’s game with a wrist shot wired past Ilya Sorokin, Carolina’s Jordan Martinook caught Mayfield up high with what seemed to be a transparent high stick.
In a game where the Hurricanes had a 4-1 advantage on penalty calls, including two double-minors — the lone penalty they took nullifying two minutes of one among the four-minute calls as a substitute of giving the Islanders an influence play — the referees kept the whistles of their pockets.
Mayfield immediately began appealing for a call, diverting his attention from the sport.
After which Fast scored.
“I assumed they probably deserved a penalty sooner or later throughout that hockey game tonight,” Matt Martin said in a quiet postgame locker room. “I don’t learn about you. I don’t know what the penalties ended up. It’s what it’s.”
Mayfield didn’t speak to reporters after the sport, with the Islanders saying he was getting medical attention, and the team avoided direct criticism of the officiating.
But there was little secret about their feelings.
“What’d you’re thinking that?” Martin said, asked concerning the no-call on Mayfield.
“I didn’t see it,” Noah Dobson said. “Obviously there was some frustration there.”
“Scotty said he got high-sticked,” Brock Nelson said. “I just saw the aftermath. I didn’t see a replay. I assume [they] missed it. They didn’t really need to have a discussion about it, either.”
Lambert, barely hiding his anger, was relegated to one-word answers.
Asked whether the no-call was bothersome, he said: “Yeah,” later adding that the Islanders will likely ask for a proof from the league.
“I just saw a snippet of it,” he said, regarding Mayfield focusing his attention on the referees as a substitute of the motion at hand. “So clearly he had some issues and was attempting to recuperate.”
Regardless of the situation with the officiating is, the Islanders are looking at a 2-0 hole in a series during which they were the underdogs to start with, and just lost a game during which they held a third-period lead.
And, after taking 4 penalties and allowing two power-play goals in Game 1, they took 4 more in Game 2, spending 9:18 total on the penalty kill and giving up an own-goal at five-on-four.
“Tough that way, the best way it kinda played out,” Nelson said. “Never seen an argument with the ref be won.”
Stefan Noesen, who was credited with the goal for Carolina on Sebastian Aho’s own-goal, was also the one Hurricanes forward in the sport who finished and not using a shot on net.
Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said that forward Teuvo Teravainen broke his hand and can need surgery.
Power Plays
Three stars
1. Jesper Fast
Fast scored the game-winner in additional time, taking the wind out of the Islanders’ sails after they easily could have stolen away home ice. That would easily be the moment that turns the series.
2. Jaccob Slavin
Each top pair defenders for Carolina gave the Islanders trouble, but we’ll give the nod here to Slavin for his early assist to Paul Stastny and the tying goal within the third — which took the air out of the Islanders in a moment where the sport could have gone the opposite way.
3. Antti Raanta
Raanta was not perfect on Wednesday, but has greater than done what’s needed to deliver two wins for Carolina, and has kept himself within the conversation to begin Game 3 on Long Island.
Key moment
Stefan Noesen’s goal — or Sebastian Aho’s own goal, in case you prefer — was an easily preventable error, the type that Ilya Sorokin almost never makes. And without it, the Islanders might just have gone back to Recent York with home-ice advantage.
Quote of the night
“Apart from [during] a four-minute kill, we didn’t get a call all night.”
— Matt Martin
