NEW YORK _ The Islanders were better. But not good enough as they could not complete another third-period rally.
Their season-high six-game win streak ended with a 4-3 loss to the Hurricanes on Tuesday night at NYCB Live's Nassau Coliseum, denying them a chance for their longest single-season win streak since they won nine straight from Dec. 31, 1989-Jan. 19, 1990.
The Islanders (23-14-4) went 0 for 3 on the power play and Justin Williams, coming out of the penalty box, put the Hurricanes (20-17-5) ahead 3-2 at 17:18 of the third period. Jaccob Slavin's power-play goal at 18:53 pushed it to 4-2 before Brock Nelson scored his second goal of the game with 58.2 seconds remaining.
Thomas Greiss made 20 saves while the Hurricanes' Curtis McElhinney stopped 28 shots.
Rookie defenseman Devon Toews, with his second NHL goal, tied the game at 2 at 4:50 of the third period on a blue-line shot off captain Anders Lee's feed and through Nelson's screen.
The Islanders were coming off Saturday night's 4-3 win at St. Louis. But they needed three third-period goals to get that victory and Islanders coach Barry Trotz said the subpar performance was both a "red flag" and a "wake-up call."
Or should have been.
Trotz opted to start Greiss for the first time since pulling him in the second period of a 6-3 win over the Senators at Barclays Center on Dec. 28 despite Robin Lehner having won a career-high seven straight.
But Lehner is 0-4-0 lifetime against the Hurricanes and Greiss had already beaten them three times this season _ making 45 saves in a season-opening, 2-1 overtime win at Carolina on Oct. 4, 38 more saves in another 2-1 win at Carolina on Oct. 28 and 26 saves in a 4-1 win in Brooklyn on Nov. 24 _ and making 45 saves in a 3-0 win at Carolina on Feb. 16, 2018.
"I don't know if I go by analytics all the time," Trotz said. "Sometimes, it's feel. There's certain guys that just have a knack of winning or producing against certain teams."
Trotz also had Valtteri Filppula back in the lineup after the third-line center missed two games with an upper-body injury. Josh Ho-Sang was re-assigned to Bridgeport (AHL) while rookie Michael Dal Colle remained in the lineup on Filppula's left wing.
After falling behind in their previous two games, the Islanders took a 1-0 lead on the Hurricanes as Nelson, at the left point, intercepted defenseman Justin Faulk's soft clearing attempt off the boards and skated in to beat McElhinney through his pads at 13:42 of the first period.
But the sloppy play that concerned Trotz returned as the Hurricanes led 2-1 by the first intermission. Saku Maenalanen, with his first NHL goal, got to the crease between defensemen Johnny Boychuk and Nick Leddy and with Filppula's line not offering support to tie the game at 1 at 15:10. Then, Greg McKegg banked a shot off defenseman Adam Pelech's skate from the left boards with 6.0 seconds remaining after Mathew Barzal turned the puck over in his zone.
The Islanders thought they had tied the game at 2 as Nelson fed Jordan Eberle at the crease at 2:26 of the second period. But Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour successfully challenged that Filppula was offside.
The Islanders were denied again when McElhinney sprawled to stop defenseman Ryan Pulock's wide-open look from low in the right circle with eight seconds left in the second period.
Of course, two ineffectual power-play chances in the second period, which yielded just two shots _ the Hurricanes had three short-handed shots _ were no help, either.
