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Isles hope to bounce back in Carolina

Feb 17, 2015 - 3:47 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The New York Islanders will try to rebound with a fourth straight victory over Carolina on Tuesday night when they visit the Hurricanes and PNC Arena.

The Metropolitan Division-leading Islanders had a four-game winning streak snapped on Monday night with a 6-5 setback to the rival New York Rangers. The Isles went ahead by two goals on Ryan Strome's tally 3:43 into the third period, but the Blueshirts scored the game's final three goals and got the game-winner with 4:32 to play.

Strome's tally was his second of the game, while Frans Nielsen, Johnny Boychuk and John Tavares also scored. Jaroslav Halak yielded all six goals on 42 shots faced.

"We did good things for parts of the game," said Tavares. "But we didn't do enough of those good things later in the game and it cost us two points."

The loss allowed the Rangers to pull within two points of the Isles for first place in the division. The Pittsburgh Penguins are also two points off the pace.

The Islanders had lost six in a row to the Hurricanes before this three-game series winning streak, which includes a victory in the first two of four meetings this season.

Tonight may be a good night to give Halak some rest given the back-to-back contests and the fact that backup Chad Johnson has won all three of his career starts versus Carolina with a 1.99 goals against average and .923 save percentage.

The Hurricanes were in action on Monday night as well and snapped a two-game slide with a 6-3 victory over the Ottawa Senators. Defenseman Michal Jordan scored on the power play for his first career goal, while Jeff Skinner and Chris Terry also had a goal on the man advantage.

"It was a huge game for us. I'm really glad we stopped (the losing streak)," said Andrej Nestrasil, who had a goal and two assists.

Jay McClement was credited with the go-ahead goal following a scary incident late in the second period. Clarke MacArthur was back checking on the play and the Ottawa forward collided hard with his own goaltender, Robin Lehner, as the puck went in.

Both MacArthur and Lehner were down on the ice for some time and neither returned to the game. The officials also opted to send both teams to the dressing room with 53 seconds remaining in the frame following the injuries, with that time played prior to the official start of the third period.

Cam Ward made 29 saves in the win and could get some rest tonight in favor of backup Anton Khudobin, who is 1-2-0 lifetime versus the Islanders with a 2.81 GAA and .915 save percentage in three games (2 starts).