This Islander loss was not good news for the Rangers.
The Hurricanes won, 5-2, on Sunday afternoon at UBS Arena to move four points ahead of the second-place Rangers in the Metropolitan Division.
The Islanders (35-34-10), who will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2018, deepened their skid to 0-4-1 in advance of a home-and-home series with the playoff-bound Capitals, starting Tuesday night in Washington.
The Hurricanes (52-20-8), already without goalie Frederik Andersen (lower body), lost Sunday’s starter Antti Raanta at 12:57 of the second period. Three minutes earlier, Raanta stretched to stop a tipped puck by Kieffer Bellows, was slow to rise and appeared uncomfortable after that. He stopped 17 of 18 shots before Pyotr Kochetkov, 22, who made his NHL debut with 17 saves in Saturday’s 3-2 overtime win in New Jersey, relieved him.
Semyon Varlamov made 29 saves for the Islanders.
Max Domi, finding room to get open at the crease, gave the Hurricanes a 3-2 lead at 5:40 of the third period.
The Hurricanes had taken a 2-0 lead in the first period as Derek Stepan took defenseman Noah Dobson’s turnover deep in the Islanders’ zone for an unassisted goal at 2:25 and Seth Jarvis scored on the power play at 8:09.
Matt Martin fed Ross Johnston at the crease to bring the Islanders within 2-1 at 18:25 of the first period. Casey Cizikas, with the secondary assist, earned his 200th career point on Johnston’s goal.
Ryan Pulock’s power-play blast through Zach Parise’s screen tied it at 2 at 15:27 of the second period on the first shot Kochetkov faced.
Kochetkov then stopped the final seven shots on him.
Jesper Fast and defenseman Brendan Smith added empty-net goals for the Hurricanes.
