NEW YORK _ After spending half the season needlessly carrying three goaltenders, the Islanders are suddenly in need of help in net at the worst possible time.
Young backup J-F Berube was pulled after allowing four goals on 13 shots midway through the second period of a must-win Islanders game against the lottery-bound Hurricanes at Barclays Center. Thomas Greiss, who started all nine games on the just-completed road trip, came in and allowed goals on the first two shots he faced.
And that disastrous second period pretty much finished off the Islanders, who dropped a hideous 8-4 decision to Carolina on Monday in the first half of a home-and-home set.
The Isles trailed by two entering the third but gave up two breakaways in the first four minutes, the second drawing a penalty shot for Jeff Skinner. He deked Greiss to the curb for his second goal of the night and cemented the Isles' second straight regulation loss, the first time that's happened since Dec. 13-15. Second-year Carolina defenseman Jaccob Slavin completed a hat trick later in the third.
The loss kept the Isles a point behind the Leafs for the final playoff spot and allowed the Lightning, winners at the Garden on Monday, to pull even with the Islanders at 75 points.
Jaroslav Halak has been toiling in Bridgeport since being waived and sent down on Dec. 31. The exiled veteran may be the Isles only hope for the playoffs with 14 games to go, though there was no word he'd been called up before Monday's game finished.
With another game right away in Raleigh, N.C., on Tuesday, Doug Weight was certainly reluctant to tax Greiss further after the goaltender started the prior nine games, though he was pulled three times, most recently before the third period in St. Louis on Saturday in a 4-3 loss.
Berube was sharp coming on in relief two nights earlier but he was shaky on Monday with the start. Ryan Strome staked Berube to a lead at 9:11 of the first but the Hurricanes took the lead with two goals in 26 seconds. Slavin snapped one through a screen and over Berube's shoulder at 14:14, followed by some weak defensive-zone play by the Islanders and Joakim Nordstrom sweeping by a flailing Berube at 14:40.
Stephen Gionta tied it with his first Islander goal at 17:32 and things brightened when Calvin de Haan took a feed from crowd favorite Josh Ho-Sang, playing his first home game as an Islander, and snapped one by Cam Ward at 2:32 of the second.
But things fell apart from there. Justin Faulk beat Berube from the slot at 6:51, with the young goaltender barely out to challenge the shot. At 8:02, Skinner got off a wrist shot that trickled between Berube's legs to put the Islanders behind. After about 30 seconds of what can be assumed to be serious contemplation, Weight called for Greiss.
And Faulk greeted Greiss with very stoppable wrist shot at 8:58 that Greiss simply missed. On an Islanders power play, Slavin worked the puck past Brock Nelson at the point and tucked a shootout-style move between Greiss' legs for a shorthanded goal at 11:45 and a three-goal Isles deficit.
Ho-Sang redirected a feed from fellow rookie Anthony Beauvillier to cut the deficit to 6-4 after two, the only sign of life from an otherwise unhappy crowd at the Isles' first home game since Feb. 19.
