Islanders over Wild 6-3 (photo courtesy of Wild.com)
John Tavares had two goals and an assist, Johnny Boychuk scored for the second straight game and the New York Islanders beat the Minnesota Wild 6-3 on Sunday night.
Wild drop second straight on east coast
Calvin de Haan, Alan Quine and Thomas Hickey also scored to help New York get its highest scoring total of the year and win for the third time in four home games after opening with two road losses. Thomas Greiss stopped 26 shots for his first win in two starts this season.
Islanders rookie Anthony Beauvillier had two assists, giving the 19-year-old at least a point in three straight games.
Zach Parise scored twice for Minnesota to top 300 goals for his career, and Nino Niederreiter also scored. Second-string goalie Darcy Kuemper made 27 saves.
Trailing 1-0 early in the second period, the Islanders took the lead with two goals 34 seconds apart.
First, Josh Bailey skated up the left side and passed into the slot to Tavares, who fired it in for his second of the season at 4:23. Then, de Haan fired a wrist shot from beyond the left faceoff circle past Kuemper for his first of the season.
Boychuk made it 3-1 at 7:31 when he fired a slap shot from the right point past Kuemper’s glove side.
Parise
After getting denied in close by Greiss twice earlier in the period, Parise pulled the Wild within one with 7:23 left. Greiss appeared to stop a slow puck before it crossed the line, but a video review showed the puck was across just before the goalie knocked it away with his right pad. It gave Parise 20 goals in 48 career games against the Islanders.
The Islanders put the game away in the third with goals from two players who had overtime winners in the first round of the playoffs last spring. Beauvillier brought the puck down the left side, slowed for the play to develop and dropped it to Quine, who skated forward and fired a shot past Kuemper at 6:29 to restore New York’s two-goal lead. Hickey pushed the lead to 5-2 with a wrist shot just over two minutes later.
Niederreiter, the No. 5 overall selection by the Islanders in the 2010 NHL draft, pulled the Wild within two with 2:48 left for his seventh point (four goals, three assists) in seven games against his former team.
Tavares added an empty-netter with 1:43 left to cap the scoring. Andrew Ladd, the Islanders’ top free agent signing in the offseason, had an assist for his first point with New York.
After a scoreless opening period, Parise got the Wild on the scoreboard at 1:15 of the second with his 300th goal. Matt Dumba passed it to the left side to Parise, who fired a low shot past Greiss for his first of the season.
The first period was fast-paced and evenly played with each team getting 11 shots.
NOTES: Coming off a 2-1 OT loss at New Jersey on Saturday night, the Wild played the first of 13 sets of back-to-backs this season. … New York D Ryan Pulock was placed on IR on Saturday and is expected to miss 4 to 6 weeks with a lower body injury. Pulock lasted only five shifts in the first period of his season debut in Friday’s 3-2 win over Arizona before his injury. … New York announced LW Eric Boulton cleared waivers and was assigned to Bridgeport of the AHL. … The Islanders improved to 3-1-0 at home against Western Conference teams this season, and 15-1-2 against West teams at Barclays Center since moving to Brooklyn before last season.
UP NEXT
Wild: At Boston in the third game of a four-game trip.
Islanders: Host Montreal on Wednesday night in the conclusion of a five-game homestand.
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