Islanders hold off Hurricanes in Game 5 to stave off elimination

Brock Nelson scored by knocking in an airborne puck that had bounced off the face of Carolina's Sebastian Aho, and the visiting New York Islanders added two goals that came off turnovers, beating the Hurricanes 3-2 on Tuesday night and extending their first-round playoff series.

Nelson's goal stood out. He swung at the puck after it had struck Aho near the mouth and was falling to the ice, batting it past Antti Raanta near the post early in the second period for a wild score.

Pierre Engvall scored midway through the first period after getting a one-on-one shot at Raanta off Carolina's failed clear, while Mathew Barzal took a turnover by Martin Necas the other way to beat Raanta late in the second for the 3-1 lead.

Ilya Sorokin weathered a strong first period from Carolina to finish with 34 saves as New York sent the series back to UBS Arena for Friday's Game 6.

The Hurricanes certainly would've preferred to close this one out Tuesday on home ice considering how they're grinding forward with an injury-depleted group of forwards — including top names like Andrei Svechnikov (season-ending knee injury) and Teuvo Teravainen (broken hand suffered in Game 2).

Aho's score off a behind-the-net feed from Seth Jarvis cut the deficit to 3-2 midway through the third period. But the Hurricanes came up short on a night that included the Islanders successfully challenging a first-period put-away on Stefan Noesen's one-timer for coming on an uncalled offsides as Carolina pushed into the zone with the man advantage.

Raanta finished with 19 saves, while Aho and defenceman Brent Burns both pinged the post on a frustrating night for the Hurricanes. And now, they'll have to win on the road again to avoid a Game 7 at home Sunday.

Stars take series lead over Wild

Tyler Seguin and Jason Robertson each had a power-play goal and an assist, Roope Hintz had three assists for the second straight game and the Dallas Stars took the series lead over the Minnesota Wild for the first time with a 4-0 win in Game 5 on Tuesday night.

Seguin's fourth power-play goal of the series came only 2:22 into the game, eight seconds after Wild forward Marcus Foligno's five-minute major penalty and game misconduct for a knee-on-knee hit on Radek Faksa.

Mason Marchment scored early in the second period and Ty Dellandrea added an empty-netter with 3:57 left.

The Stars will try to close out the first-round playoff series Friday night in Game 6 at Minnesota, where the home team will be trying to avoid another opening-round defeat. The seventh game, if needed, would be Sunday in Dallas.

Faksa remained face down on the ice after the collision with Foligno near the blue line, which came right after the Stars center had knocked the puck out of the air with his hand. Faksa had to be helped off the ice once he got up, but returned to the game midway through the first period.

The major penalty was upheld and the game misconduct issued after officials reviewed the play.

Seguin put Dallas ahead to stay with his second-effort tally on the rebound of a shot by Robertson, who then made it 2-0 midway through the first on his 35-foot wrister through the legs of Filip Gustavsson. It was the second goal and fourth assist of the series for Robertson, who became the first 100-point scorer for Dallas this season.