RALEIGH, N.C. --The Carolina Hurricanes can become the first team to advance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs this season with a win against the New York Islanders in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference First Round at PNC Arena on Tuesday.
Carolina won the first two games of the best-of-7 series at home and is 9-1 in the playoffs at PNC Arena the past two seasons. The Hurricanes can advance to the second round for the third consecutive time but expect the Islanders to play their best game to try to force a Game 6 at New York on Friday.
"We understand they're not going away," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "We've got to come in here and play our game and do it the way we do it, whistle to whistle, and take advantage of any opportunity we get."
RELATED: [Complete Hurricanes vs. Islanders series coverage]
The Islanders face a steep climb to get back in the series. Teams trailing 3-1 in a best-of-7 series are 31-299 (9.4 percent) all-time.
But New York isn't looking past Game 5.
"You just focus on our game, what we have to do as a group and what we have to do to make it as hard on them as possible," Islanders center Casey Cizikas said. "They've played well up to this point and they've done some good things and we've just got to counteract that with our style, our aggressiveness and our determination."
New York held a slim lead down the stretch during the regular season and qualified for the playoffs as the first wild card in the Eastern Conference by going 12-6-2 in its final 20 games, and will rely on that experience Tuesday.
"It's a little different scenario, but at least it's something we're familiar with, to win or go home," Islanders forward Zach Parise said. "We've had a couple of those already, so hopefully we can tonight do what we did in those other ones and take care of it and get this series back home."
Here are 3 keys to Game 5:
