Boychuk goal sees Islanders floor Coyotes
Short-handed third-period strike seals 3-2 win
>> NEW YORK: Johnny Boychuk’s shorthanded goal early in the third period lifted the New York Islanders to a 3-2 victory over the Arizona Coyotes on Friday.
Dennis Seidenberg and Ryan Strome also scored for New York, and Jaroslav Halak stopped 23 shots for his first win of the season and the Islanders’ second in three home games after opening with two road losses.
Boychuk’s goal at 4:24 minutes of the final period — with teammate Calvin de Haan in the penalty box — came after Brock Nelson won a face-off in the Coyotes’ zone and sent the puck back to Boychuk at the point. Boychuk fired a shot past Domingue for his first goal of the season.
Brad Richardson and Radim Vrbata scored 13 seconds apart in the first period to level for the Coyotes. Louis Domingue had 28 saves as Phoenix lost their third straight on the road after opening with a home win.
Jaroslav Halak made 23 saves for the Islanders.
Rookie defenceman Zach Werenski had a goal and an assist, and teammates Nick Foligno and William Karlsson picked up their first goals of the season as the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2.
Columbus’ Sergei Bobrovsky blocked 32 shots and survived a desperate Chicago powerplay rally near the end of the game as the Blue Jackets picked up their first win of the season, avoiding a repeat of last season’s disastrous 0-8 start.
Tyler Motte and Richard Panik scored for Chicago and Corey Crawford had 25 saves.
Gustav Nyquist had a goal and an assist to help the Detroit Red Wings beat the Nashville Predators 5-3.
Justin Abdelkader, Drew Miller, Tomas Tatar and Darren Helm also scored as Detroit won for the third time in succession. Petr Mrazek stopped 30 shots.
PK Subban, Mike Ribeiro and Mike Fisher scored for Nashville, who have lost three straight. Pekka Rinne finished with 38 saves.
Fisher’s powerplay goal with 4:46 minutes left pulled the Predators to 4-3 as he tipped in Roman Josi’s shot from the point.
However, Helm had an empty-net powerplay score with 22 seconds left for his fourth goal of the season to seal the win.