RALEIGH, N.C. -- Patrick Roy says he isn't looking for the New York Islanders to materially change against the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference First Round at PNC Arena on Monday (7:30 p.m. ET; MSGSN, BSSO, ESPN2, TVAS2, SN360).
This despite a 3-1 loss in Game 1 of the best-of-7 series Saturday.
"I thought we did a lot of good things out there," New York's coach said Sunday. "Obviously, it was not enough, but I mean we had our chances. I just feel like we have to be resilient right now and go out there and play another strong game. That is where our focus needs to be.
"I just feel like we should be confident in the way we played yesterday. … Overall, I'm pleased with the way we played defensively, the way we played in the neutral zone and the way we played in the O-zone. We had a lot of chances."
The Islanders should find some solace in their performance.
They survived an early blow when Evgeny Kuznetsov scored on a power play 95 seconds into the game to send the home fans into a towel-waving, roof-rattling bedlam. Kyle MacLean tied it 1-1 at 8:20 of the first period with a gritty, greasy goal.
New York dominated a scoreless second period, outshooting the Hurricanes 13-6, but lost on a goal by Stefan Noesen that was shoveled in after a double deflection off Hurricanes defenseman Brady Skjei and Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock at 3:34 of the third.
Carolina forward Martin Necas added an empty-net goal at 18:28.
Islanders center Brock Nelson said he delivered a positive message to his team in the aftermath of Game 1.
"I think we played a solid game," he said. "Definitely, we'd have liked to come out with a win, but at the same point, you can't get down given that you didn't get the result. It's going to be a long series. It's going to be tight-checking games. They are going to be tight; you know that going into it.
"For us now, it is kind of rest, reset, look at some from Game 1 and maybe make a couple of small changes and get ready to get right back at it.
The Islanders know they are going to have to be prepared for the Hurricanes team they saw in the third period, instead of the one that struggled to get to its game in the first two. Carolina rested nine players in its final regular-season game, and it took a while to find its cohesion and legs.
Once it did, the results were startling. After the Hurricanes had 13 shots combined in the first two periods, they got 13 in the third.
"I thought the pace was better for us," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "We were a little more direct in what we were doing. We got up to speed with what we were doing more than the first two periods."
The Islanders also know they are going to have to work harder to solve Frederik Andersen, who finished with 33 saves.
Andersen made several highlight-reel saves, but none bigger than the bang-bang saves on defenseman Noah Dobson earlier in the third. The second save came with the 6-foot-4, 238-pound goalie sitting on the ice, throwing himself at the puck.
"I threw technique out the window there," Andersen said.
Mathew Barzal also had a good chance but was flustered by how much of the net Andersen takes away with his size and positioning.
"I had a good look there in front last night and I didn't see a ton of net," Barzal said.
Roy said the Islanders will concentrate a bit more on Andersen on during preparation Sunday after doing preliminary work in the two days between the end of the regular season and the start of the series.
"We're going to talk about [Andersen] today," Roy said. "We maybe should have talked more about him before, but I mean we are going to talk about him today and see what we could do. We need traffic in front of the net."
Roy pointed to the Islanders' goal: A wrist shot that was deflected onto the ice and bounced to Andersen, who was a bit handcuffed and allowed the puck to squirt to his left, where MacLean found it first and banged it home.
"That is tough on any goaltender," Roy said. "These are the type of goals we might have to have in this series because this is a team that plays well defensively. There might not be tic-tac-toe kind of goals. It might be, 'Hey we need to get the puck to the net and work.'"
