Carolina Hurricanes rally to take 2-0 series lead over New York Islanders

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Warren Foegele and Nino Niederreiter scored 48 seconds apart early in the third period to rally the Carolina Hurricanes to a 2-1 victory over the New York Islanders on Sunday and a 2-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Petr Mrazek stopped nine of 10 shots he faced before leaving with an injury 6 1/2 minutes into the second period. Curtis McElhinney came on and finished with 17 saves to help Carolina win for the sixth time in its last seven playoff games.

Mathew Barzal scored and Robin Lehner made 16 saves for the Islanders. New York, which had home-ice advantage in a seven-game series for the 15th time, has opened with two losses for the first time.

Game 3 is Wednesday night in Raleigh, N.C.

Trailing 1-0 after two periods, the Hurricanes took the lead early in the third. Foegele tied, taking a pass from Lucas Wallmark and beating Lehner inside the right post from the right faceoff dot 17 seconds in. It was his fifth goal of the postseason.

Niederreiter put the Hurricanes ahead when he redirected a shot by Teuvo Teravainen for his first of the playoffs at 1:05 of the third.

McElhinney stopped a shot by Anthony Beauvillier 5:15 into the third, and then stuffed a try by Barzal with just under 11 minutes left.

Then, with New York on a power play, McElhinney saved Josh Bailey’s attempt from the left doorstep to preserve the lead. After the penalty expired, Jordan Eberle’s shot from in front hit the crossbar and stayed out with 7 1/2 minutes remaining.

The Islanders’ Ryan Pulock also hit the crossbar with 1:02 left.

Stars, Blues find way with new coaches, go into Game 3 even

Jim Montgomery is a rookie NHL coach with a championship background.

With Montgomery, their third coach in three seasons after grizzled and somewhat different veterans Ken Hitchcock and Lindy Ruff, the Dallas Stars have eliminated the St. Louis Blues’ home-ice advantage in the second round of their Western Conference playoff series.

“Monty’s been awesome this year. He’s really put everything together,” Stars’ top-line centre Tyler Seguin said. “We kind of had an offensive coach [Ruff], then we had a really defensive coach [Hitchcock]. It took us a while to figure out what our identity was.”

The Stars and Blues certainly both found their way with new coaches this season, with St. Louis surging under interim coach Craig Berube since he took over in the 20th game of the season.

After the Stars won 4-2 in Game 2 to earn a split of the first two games played in St. Louis, Game 3 of the second-round series is Monday in Dallas. It is the only game on the NHL playoff schedule that night.

Things are getting a bit chippy between the familiar rivals — Hitchcock coached both teams, Blues general manager Doug Armstrong used to have that same role in Dallas and Stars goalie Ben Bishop grew up in the St. Louis area before being drafted by the Blues and making his NHL debut for them.

“Playoffs tend to get chippy. It’s about holding your composure and finding the right times to do what you want to do,” Blues goalie Jordan Binnington said. “Yeah, it’s heating up here in round two.”

Montgomery made the jump from college to the NHL last off-season after five seasons at the University of Denver, including a national title two years ago. He was part of a national championship as a college player at Maine in 1993. Before Denver, he was head coach and general manager for Dubuque of the United States Hockey League in a three-year run that included two USHL titles.

Craig Berube became interim coach for the Blues on Nov. 19, replacing fired coach Mike Yeo after a 7-9-3 start. They finished the regular season 38-19-6, including a franchise-record 11-game winning streak snapped by Dallas in February, and beat the Winnipeg Jets in six games to open the playoffs.

This is the second time Berube has led a team to the playoffs after taking over as interim coach. But the 2013-14 Philadelphia Flyers didn’t make it past the first round.