The numbers tell the story for the Islanders.

Mathew Barzal, in his return from injury, finished the series with two goals and zero assists. Anders Lee had just one goal without any assists.

Bo Horvat had just one goal and one assist.

Those three players made up their top line.

And for good measure, Noah Dobson, their highest-scoring defenseman during the season, was held without a goal with just two assists.

Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri produced at a high level, but otherwise, the Islanders’ stars just didn’t do enough over six games against the Hurricanes, which ended with a 2-1 overtime loss on Friday night.

Through six games, there was only one other Islander with more than three points — Ryan Pulock, who was easily their best defenseman in the first round.

For a series in which offense was at a major premium, that accounted for much of the difference between the Islanders and Hurricanes, and it didn’t help the Isles scored just once on the power play during the series.

“Obviously hold myself a little bit accountable,” Horvat said. “You want to produce. At the end of the day, I would’ve liked to get on the scoresheet a little bit more and help the team offensively. Just wasn’t the case. It sucks that way.”

Horvat had said he felt good about his Game 5 performance, which included an assist, after a slow start to the series, but proved unable to get back on the scoresheet when doing so would have extended the Islanders’ season, including a chance early in overtime when he couldn’t get a strong shot off on his backhand.

“I definitely take ownership and having to be better,” he said. “And obviously wish I could’ve got on the scoresheet a little bit more during the series.”

There are excuses out there for the Islanders, namely Barzal’s injury, which he returned from in Game 1, but there was little interest in leaning on those. Still, Isles coach Lane Lambert was not in the mood to criticize following the loss.

“I think they were battling,” Lambert said of the Isles’ top players. “They gave it absolutely everything they had and again, there wasn’t much ice out there for either team. That was just the way the series went. It wasn’t easy.”

Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour decided to toy with reporters when asked Friday morning about his starting goaltender.

“That’s the only one I’m not going to disclose just for the hell of it,” he said. “There’s just nothing else to have fun about. I’ll let you guys sweat it out.”

But when the Hurricanes came out for warmups on Friday, there was indeed a change: Frederik Andersen started his first game of the series for Carolina, relieving Antti Raanta in nets and turning in a brilliant performance, with 35 saves in his first ever playoff game for the Hurricanes.

1. Paul Stastny

The center scored the game-winner in overtime for the Hurricanes almost out of nowhere, beating Ilya Sorokin on a sharp-angle wrist shot to end the series.

2. Frederik Andersen

The goalie came into the Carolina net cold and, after giving up an early goal, didn’t get beat for the rest of the night with 35 saves in total.

3. Sebastian Aho

Carolina’s Aho was the player to finally best Sorokin in the third period, giving way to an eventual victory.

Any number of plays in which the Isles were kept from going up 2-0 could go here, but the late first-period sequence that saw Andersen stop Anders Lee on a break and the rebound to fall to Mat Barzal, only for Shayne Gostisbehere to block his shot, was perhaps the best chance for the Isles.

“It hurts. It hurts bad. We’ll sit on this one for a little while and get ready for next season.”

— Matt Martin