Erik Haula scored his fourth goal of the season to break a second-period tie, and the undefeated Carolina Hurricanes set some team history in a 5-2 victory against the New York Islanders on Friday night in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The Hurricanes improved to 5-0-0 for the best five-game start in franchise history.
Teuvo Teravainen, Brett Pesce, Dougie Hamilton and Andrei Svechnikov also scored for Carolina, which never trailed for the second game in a row after three comeback victories. Nino Niederreiter supplied two assists.
Haula’s go-ahead goal came with 4:51 to play in the middle period. He moved from the right side to the front of the net with the puck and converted.
Hamilton tacked on a goal with 59 seconds left in the second period for a 4-2 lead. Svechnikov added an empty-netter in the final minute of the third period, his first goal of the season.
Brock Nelson and Johnny Boychuk scored power-play goals for the Islanders. Jordan Eberle had two assists for New York, and Nelson had one.
Hurricanes goalie Petr Mrazek, who has started in three of the team’s games, made 17 saves.
Carolina were looking to extend its historic start with a home game scheduled for late last night against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Islanders goalie Thomas Greiss stopped 35 shots.
It was a rematch of last spring’s Eastern Conference semi-finals, which Carolina won in a four-game sweep.
Teravainen scored the first goal 3:57 into the game, set up on a nifty pass from Hamilton. All Teravainen had to do was tap the puck into the net.
Nelson scored eight seconds into an Islanders power play to tie the score at 8:36 of the opening period.
The Hurricanes were back on top on Pesce’s goal with 5:18 to play in the first.
Carolina held a 16-8 edge in first-period shots.
Boychuk levelled the score at 1:53 of the middle period before Haula put the Hurricanes on top for good.
The game marked the NHL debut for Hurricanes right winger Julien Gauthier, who was the organisation’s first-round draft pick in 2016. The 21-year-old finished with no points and two penalty minutes in 8:23 of ice time.