Hurricanes have yet to play a complete game against the Islanders. They’re still up 3-0

Whatever Rod Brind’Amour’s instructions were for the third period, the world will never know. The Carolina Hurricanes spent the period under siege, desperately clinging to a one-goal lead, relying on Frederik Andersen to bail them out.

They weren’t at their best in the third, just as they weren’t at their best in Game 1, or when they fell behind by three goals in Game 2. And yet again, it didn’t matter. The Hurricanes have yet to play a full 60-minute game to their standards, and they’re still a win away from a sweep of the New York Islanders.

That’s the sign of a good team. That’s the sign of a great team. Winning, night after night, without its fastball, finding ways to win when other teams might lose.

This wasn’t a five-goal spurt, but hanging onto a 3-2 win in front of a hostile crowd is just as impressive in its own way. As for that third period? Not what Brind’Amour had planned.

“We didn’t do it, that’s for sure,” the Hurricanes coach said. “It wasn’t that. You knew they were going to have that desperation. You don’t want to play in your own end. Playing with a lead isn’t as easy as people think sometimes. You want to be aggressive, but as soon as you don’t, that’s what happens.”

Still, it was a win in a game the Hurricanes led five minutes in and never trailed. They spent two periods pounding away at the Islanders, chasing new starter Ilya Sorokin from the net less than halfway through, and had what looked like a comfortable 3-1 lead late in the second period.

The Jordan Staal-Jordan Martinook-Seth Jarvis line didn’t get on the scoresheet, but neutralized the Islanders’ best line and ground them down so hard that the next line up seemed to get a great chance immediately after they left the ice.

But after Brock Nelson was left alone to tap home a rebound in the final minutes of the second, everything after that was a race against time just to get to the finish.

“We can clean up some things,” Hurricanes defenseman Dmitry Orlov said. “I don’t think we’ve played a perfect game yet, but we win. Just have to take a reset and get ready for Game 4.”

It’s been a weird series that way. The Islanders were happier about the way they played in Game 1 than the Hurricanes were. The atmosphere at PNC Arena was just starting to turn bitter when the Hurricanes were still losing despite their utter dominance in Game 2, only to produce five unanswered goals and a historic comeback.

And then there was Thursday, when the Hurricanes carved out a lead and then found themselves hemmed into their own end the way they so often do to other teams — bending without, in the end, breaking.

“The first two periods were OK. Fine,” Brind’Amour said. “We knew it was coming. They were going to give it everything they had and that’s exactly what happened. Obviously Freddie came up with a few big saves and that’s the difference in the game.”

Brind’Amour will have an interesting decision to make ahead of Game 4 on Saturday. Andersen started three consecutive games for the first time all year, and as good as he was, there may be long-term considerations that merit starting Pyotr Kochetkov, especially with the short turnaround to a 2 p.m. start.

A complete performance from the Hurricanes would take some of the pressure of their goaltending and make that decision, essentially, moot. They haven’t produced one yet. It hasn’t mattered yet.

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