Neal, Oilers defeat Islanders

On Long Island, James Neal scored four goals in the Edmonton Oilers’ 5-2 win over the New York Islanders.

The Oilers improved to 3-0-0 with the win.

“That’s definitely pretty cool,” Neal said. “It feels good to put on an Oilers uniform. I love the way our team is playing so far.”

Mikko Koskinen made 25 saves to get the win.

“That’s the best game we’ve played so far,” Oilers head coach Dave Tippett said. “Kind of more towards the team game that we’re looking for. I thought we really worked hard, we managed the puck pretty well most of the time, discipline was pretty good, power play was pretty good, penalty kill not too often.

“Even when we were in our zone a little bit, I thought we were pretty solid, like not giving up a lot. So that’s more to working to where who we want to be.”

Zack Kassian also scored for the Oilers who went 2-for-5 on the power play.

“We took too many penalties,” Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. “It’s not a winning combination when the only two things that you did for the most part tonight was win face-offs and turn pucks over.”

Anthony Beauvillier and Matt Martin scored for the Isles.

“We certainly didn’t quit, so that’s a positive,” Martin said. “But we’ve got get out of the gates better. We haven’t really come out of the gates in the first period and played well at all yet. In our building, that’s usually our forte. We’ve got to do a better job of that.”

[WATCH: All Oilers vs. Islanders highlights]

Semyon Varlamov got the start for New York and surrendered four goals and made 15 saves; he was given the hook in the second period and relieved by   Thomas Greiss who made seven saves.

“We’ve got to reflect a little bit on this one,” Islanders captain Anders Lee said. “It wasn’t a very good effort. Top to bottom, we were just kind of all over the place. We gave them too much room, didn’t close on them and we were sloppy. A team like that with that much skill, we can’t give them that kind of space. Our overall effort was just disappointing.”