Islanders vs. Ducks: Three First-Period Goals in 5:05 Carry New York Past Anaheim

The New York Islanders did all their damage in a five-minute window and spent the rest of the night daring the Anaheim Ducks to do something about it. The Ducks nearly did.

Ondrej Palat, Victor Eklund and Simon Holmstrom scored in a 5:05 span of the first period, and the Islanders held on to beat the Ducks 3-2 on Tuesday night at UBS Arena. Ilya Sorokin made 15 saves, Matthew Schaefer picked up his eighth assist in nine games, and New York pushed its point streak to four games while Anaheim lost for the fourth straight time.

A Five-Minute Blitz

For 13 minutes, nothing much happened. Then everything happened at once.

The sequence that started it began in New York's end. Sorokin gloved a Cutter Gauthier wrist shot from the top of the slot, and the Islanders turned it into a counterattack before Anaheim could reset. Anthony Duclair moved it to Jean-Gabriel Pageau on the rush, Pageau spotted Palat breaking into the slot untouched, and Palat beat Lukas Dostal high to the glove side at 13:39.

Eklund doubled it at 16:28 with a goal that rewarded pure stubbornness. He parked in front for a screen, got a piece of the puck, and when it squirted loose with Dostal out of position, he backhanded it in for his second of the season.

"I'm always trying to get to the front, get in the heat of the battle, and it worked out that time," Eklund said. "Maybe I should go to the net more." Somebody frame that and hang it in the Islanders' video room.

Anaheim Punches Back, New York Punches Harder

The Ducks answered 49 seconds later. A.J. Greer found Frank Vatrano unchecked at the top of the crease, and Vatrano pulled the puck to his backhand and lifted it over Sorokin's glove at 17:18.

That momentum lasted 41 seconds of game time. Beckett Sennecke went off for hooking at 17:59, and the Islanders' power play needed 45 seconds to restore the two-goal cushion. Schaefer let a shot go from the point and Holmstrom tipped it past Dostal at 18:44 for his fourth goal.

Islanders coach Pete DeBoer liked what he saw from that unit. "I thought the power play looked great, even though we only got one," he said.

The Turning Point: A Second Period That Went Nowhere

The game's real hinge was a scoreless middle period that kept Anaheim chasing. Greer and Mitchell Chaffee dropped the gloves at 9:13 in what NHL.com noted was Chaffee's Islanders debut, and DeBoer singled out the scrap afterward. Brayden Schenn clanked the right post on a power play at 19:00, according to NHL.com, a near miss that would have put the game away.

New York could not add on, and that let the Ducks hang around. "We did let them hang around because of our lack of finish," DeBoer said. "That was the only issue I had with the game."

Killorn Brings It Within One

With Dostal pulled for an extra attacker, Alex Killorn one-timed a Leo Carlsson pass from the left hash marks at 17:20 of the third to make it 3-2. Carlsson finished with two assists, and Jackson LaCombe added one while logging 27:55.

The Ducks pressed for the tying goal in the final minutes, and Anaheim coach Joel Quenneville said they came within a whisker. "At the same time, we almost tied it there at the end," Quenneville said. "It would have been nice to see that go in."

It didn't, and Sorokin, who saw only 17 shots all night, made sure of it.

Who Stood Out

Matthew Schaefer: The primary assist on Holmstrom's power-play goal gave him eight assists in nine games, and he played 26:20. NHL.com noted the 19-year-old became the fifth teenage defenseman in league history to open a season with a home point streak of at least five games, joining Zach Werenski, Paul Reinhart, Drew Doughty and Brad Stuart.

Ondrej Palat: A goal and a strong endorsement of the system. "We're just following the system, playing all four lines, playing great, reloading, playing hard and being hard to play against," he said.

Jean-Gabriel Pageau: The setup man on the opener, plus 11 faceoff wins in 17:16.

Ilya Sorokin: Only 17 shots came his way, but his glove stop on Gauthier launched the rush that produced the opening goal, and nothing beat him between Vatrano's backhand in the first period and the extra-attacker goal late in the third.

Lukas Dostal: Made 22 saves on 25 shots for Anaheim and kept the Ducks within reach after the first-period flurry.

Stats That Matter

• 5:05: The span in which the Islanders scored all three of their goals.
• 25-17: New York's advantage in shots on goal.
• 24: Anaheim blocked shots, a sign of how much time the Ducks spent defending.
• 59.6: The Islanders' faceoff win percentage, with Bo Horvat and Pageau each winning 11.
• 1 for 4: New York's power play, which produced the eventual winner.

What It Means

The Islanders improve to 5-3-1 with 11 points and have collected points in four straight games (3-0-1). They have also won two in a row, starting with a 4-1 victory in Toronto on Saturday. They are 4-1-0 at home, and DeBoer liked what he has seen lately. "The last two games probably are our most complete 60-minute games," he said. Los Angeles visits on Thursday.

Anaheim is going the other way. The Ducks opened the season 4-1-0 and are now 4-5-0 with eight points after four straight losses, including a 5-2 loss to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Monday. Vatrano pointed to the slow starts. "This is a league where you've got to play with a lead and learn how to play with it," he said. The Ducks visit New Jersey on Thursday.

Closing Take

This one played out like a heist movie where the crew grabs the loot in the opening act and spends the rest of the film trying not to get caught. The Islanders' five-minute burst was sharp, opportunistic and enough. The next step, as their coach admitted, is finishing the job before the final minutes turn into a nail-biter.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press; postgame quotes and notes as reported by NHL.com.