It was the New York Islanders most important game of the season. Lose and you go home. Win and you stay alive for a few more days. They needed the team to play the best games of their season to hopefully be able to do it again a few days later.
They played well for about four minutes in the game. Just because Carolina won game two with a strong 48-second shift in the third period doesn’t mean the Islanders could mimic that with a four-minute effort.
It was a tough end to the series (and the season).