Defensemen Brent Burns and Dmitry Orlov got Carolina out to a fast start and the Hurricanes held on to beat the New York Islanders 3-2 on Thursday to take a 3-0 lead in the first-round series. round.
Sebastian Aho also scored for the Hurricanes and Andrei Svechnikov had two assists. Frederik Andersen stopped 29 shots.
Carolina won for the eighth time in nine games at UBS Arena, which opened in fall 2021.
Brock Nelson and Pierre Engvall scored for the Islanders. The club is now one loss away from being eliminated in the first round by Carolina, for a second consecutive year.
Ilya Sorokin was pulled in the second period after allowing three goals on 14 shots. Semyon Varlamov stopped eight shots.
Game 4 will take place Saturday in New York at 2 p.m.
With the Hurricanes leading 3-2, Andersen made two excellent saves against Alexander Romanov in the third period.
The Islanders trailed 2-0 after 20 minutes, although they had a 15-9 advantage in shots.
A Burns shot deflected off the stick of Islanders defenseman Mike Reilly and past Sorokin at 4:46 in the first period.
Orlov doubled the lead midway through the first period.
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