How the Hurricanes stole the Islanders’ place in NHL history with Game 6 overtime win

The Carolina Hurricanes didn’t just beat the New York Islanders in overtime on Friday. They stole their place in NHL history.

With the 2-1 overtime win on Paul Stastny’s goal to close out the first-round series in six games, the Hurricanes surpassed the Islanders to become the best playoff overtime team in NHL history — 29-17 (.630) compared to the Islanders’ 40-24 (.625) — and have now won six straight in OT dating back to Game 5 of the first-round series against the Preds in 2021.

“Sneaky, classic, overtime goal,” Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said.

Stastny and his father Peter became the only father-son pairing in NHL history to each score series-winning overtime playoff goals. Peter did it twice with the Quebec Nordiques, in 1985 against the Montreal Canadiens and 1987 against the Hartford Whalers. The two Stastnys have now combined for 60 playoff goals, behind only Bobby and Brett Hull (165), Claude and Brendan Lemieux (81), and Gordie and Mark (78) and Marty (69) Howe.

Under Rod Brind’Amour, the Hurricanes are 8-4 in playoff overtimes.

Old-time hockey

Speaking of Brind’Amour, by winning a playoff series in each of his first five seasons with the same team (thanks to an assist from the preliminary round in the 2020 playoff bubble) he joins Hall of Famer Toe Blake, who did it in his first five seasons with the Montreal Canadiens, as the only coaches to do so.

Pat Burns won a series in his first five seasons as well, but with two teams, Montreal and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Freddie finishes

Frederik Andersen not only won his first playoff start for the Hurricanes with a stellar 33-save performance, he won a series-clinching game for the first time in nine tries. His last win in a close-out game was in the 2015 second round over the Calgary Flames when Andersen was with the Anaheim Ducks.

“Just try not to get too far ahead of myself, enjoy the moment and take it a shot at a time,” Andersen said. “Obviously it’s been a while since I played in the playoffs and I was very excited about it.”

The decision to start Andersen — who missed all 14 playoff games last year due to injury — might have ended up in controversy if things hadn’t gone so well, but Brind’Amour said that after starting Raanta for five straight games while Andersen was out ill and injured, there was confidence among the coaching staff a fresh Andersen was the better option Friday, especially with Raanta in reserve for a potential Game 7 at home, where he has thrived.

“We hadn’t played Raants a ton, so it just made sense,” Brind’Amour said. “It’s been two years. He missed last year. If there was a time to throw him in, this was the night. It worked out great.”

Big night for Mister Martinook

Jordan Martinook wasn’t surprised the Hurricanes tied the game in the third period and won it in overtime, the way they came out after the second intermission. He just figured he would get one of the goals.

“I felt like I was all over it,” Martinook said. “I wanted to be the guy, but oh man, does it feel good, ‘Stas’ getting it. I felt like I was all over it tonight. Happy to have it done with and ready for the next one.”

Martinook tied a career-high with seven shots on goal and played one of the best games of his entire Hurricanes career, hitting the post in the first period and threatening throughout with yet another set of new linemates, finishing the game with Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Jesper Fast.

“It doesn’t matter who we play,” Martinook said. “We’ve got to do what we did in the third and that’ll be our recipe right there.”