The New York Islanders remained alive in their Eastern Conference First Round series against the Carolina Hurricanes with a 3-2 victory at PNC Arena.

Carolina now leads the series 3-2 with Game 6 scheduled for Friday night on Long Island.

"I think you've seen from this group a lot this year. It's a resilient group", said Islanders captain Anders Lee. "You know, our road to just get in wasn't easy, we had to pull ourselves out of a hole after some tough stretches, but we believe in one another, we believe in this group and what we can do and how e can play.

"And that was no different coming into this evening."

Pierre Engvall and Brock Nelson each had a goal and an assist and Ilya Sorokin made 34 saves for New York.

"They come out hard in this building", said Islanders head coach Lane Lambert. "We knew they were going to come out hard. We knew [Sorokin would] have to make a few saves and he did.

"There was no, for lack of a better term, panic in our game. We just made sure we stuck to our plan. We knew we'd need a couple of saves going home, but certainly we did that.

"We just played pretty steady and pretty solid and we battled."

Islanders play their best game of the series, force Game 6

Paul Stastny and Sebastian Aho had Carolina's goals while Antti Raanta stopped 19 shots.

"I like the way we played. We played hard", said Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour. "We had a couple mistakes that cost us, but there wasn't a ton of those. It was just the bounces didn't go our way."

Engvall gave the Islanders a 1-0 lead midway through the first period. Nelson knocked down a clearing attempt from Brent Burns and fed Engvall with a backhand pass who beat Raanta five-hole while all alone.

"[Engvall] protects the puck and makes a lot of nice little plays", Nelson said. "Tonight he did a pretty good job hounding it, finding himself in good spots, and generating chances himself with his speed."

Stefan Noesen looked to have tied the game with 1:49 to play in the first period, but Lambert challenged the goal and video review showed offsides on the play and the call was reversed.

Nelson doubled New York's advantage after batting the puck out of the air following a shot from the slot by Engvall that hit Aho in the face.

"I just kind of didn't know what hit me", said Aho, who left the game to get stitches but returned. "It came pretty quickly there. [Engvall] was probably not aiming for my face either. It's hockey. It happens. A few stitches there and right back at it."

Stastny cut the lead in half, redirecting Jalen Chatfield's one-timer from the right point, going five-hole on Sorokin.

On a 4-on-4, Mathew Barzal decided to keep the puck rather than pass it to Horvat while on a 2-on-1 and he scored glove side from the left faceoff circle.

"Bo was a one-timer. Any time you can get a guy with his goal-scoring ability the puck in that situation, it's a good chance", Barzal said. "But I thought Burns did a good job of taking the pass away, so it forced me to shoot, and I just picked a spot."

Horvat set up the goal after Barzal had stripped Martin Necas at the blue line.

"I made a turnover there. It was a big goal for them", Necas said. "I have to learn from that. There's nothing else to do but come out for the next game and be ready."

Aho pulled the Hurricanes to within 3-2 with 9:32 remaining as he skated into the right circle and found the back of the net with a one-time off a pass from Seth Jarvis.

"It's supposed to be hard this time of year", Aho said. "We were ready for a long series. It's no big deal. Obviously, just go back to Long Island and try to do it another night there."