In St Paul, Ryan Pulock, Matt Martin and Tom Kuhnhackl scored third period goals for the New York Islanders in a 3-1 win over the Minnesota Wild.
Semyon Varlamov made 25 saves to hold off the Wild until the Isles offense came to the party.
Ryan Pulack had a goal for the Islanders in win – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
“Things haven’t been going well the last week or two weeks,” Martin said. “We had some meetings, and [we’re] just getting back to what we do best. I think we just stuck with it tonight.
“When things aren’t going well, you always seem to be trailing in games, but we didn’t deviate from our plan, we didn’t deviate from who we are as a team. We were able to get one early [in the third] and get two more, so huge win for us.”
Ryan Donato gave the Wild a 1-0 lead in the first period.
“Some nights you don’t get a lot of chances [but] they go in, some nights you get all the chances in the world and somehow they stay out,” Donato said. “It’s tough to see.”
[WATCH: All Islanders vs. Wild highlights]
Devan Dubnyk made 25 saves in the loss.
“I was never comfortable with a 1-0 lead,” Minnesota head coach Bruce Boudreau said. “I always felt we had to get another goal somewhere. We had a couple of really good chances to get it and we didn’t get it, and that worried me. They double-shifted the Barzal [line] the one time I put the Staal line out, and then they scored and that was it.”
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