In Elmont, Brock Nelson hit for a hat trick on Saturday to lead the New York Islanders to a 4-2 win over the Dallas Stars on Saturday.
“I don’t think I’ve had one in a period like that,” Nelson said. “You get one (goal), it feels good. You’re not really thinking, you’re trying to go out there and get chances. Obviously, when that chance comes, be ready for it. [Anthony Beauvillier] made a nice play on the second one. After that, you’re not thinking about [the hat trick] specifically. Just trying to still create offense, stay on the attack, and then if you do get a chance, just bury it.”
Semyon Varlamov made 37 saves in the Isles win.
“There was no room out there,” New York coach Barry Trotz said. “They’re a good hockey team. They’ve got lots of size, lots of speed. There wasn’t a lot of chances either way, and when they did, I thought [Varlamov] came up really well on them.”
The Islanders improved to 26-24-9.
“Feels like we’re doing the right things again, playing the right way,” New York’s Anthony Beauvillier said. “Everyone is sticking together. It’s fun winning games, playing the right way. After games, you just know you did the right things.”
The Stars goal scorers were Jacob Peterson and Denis Gurianov.
“We played really well,” Dallas coach Rick Bowness said. “Their goalie was really good. We didn’t capitalize on the chances we had, and they did. But it was a hard-fought game. … We deserved at least a point out of this game.”
Dallas dropped to33-24-3.
“I want to win,” Peterson said. “I want to win games. It doesn’t matter who scores the points if we don’t win.”
Ryan Pulock added a single marker for the Islanders.
“You don’t get points for being the better team,” Dallas’ Michael Raffl said. “Results are all that matters. We’re aware of the position we’re in in the standings (trail the Vegas Golden Knights by three points for the second wild card in the Western Conference), and we know we’ve got to find a way to win games.”
Jake Oettinger made 21 saves in the Dallas loss.
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