Islanders fall to Bruins for 4th loss in 5

BOSTON — Brad Marchand and Jake DeBrusk scored, Tuukka Rask stopped 30 shots and the Boston Bruins beat the Islanders, 3-1, on Saturday night.

Danton Heinen added an empty-net goal, and Torey Krug and David Pastrnak each had two assists for the Bruins, who won for the eighth time in 10 games.

Anders Lee scored and Jaroslav Halak made 29 saves for New York, which has lost four of five.

Rask earned his fourth straight win after struggling to a 3-8-2 start this season, which prompted many Bruins fans to call for coach Bruce Cassidy to play backup Anton Khudobin as the No. 1 goalie. Khudobin opened the season 7-0-2.

Marchand’s goal made it 1-0 at 10:51 of the second period. With the Islanders short-handed because of a too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty, Marchand took a pass from Krug, broke in down the left wing and snapped off a wrist shot that slipped between Halak’s pads.

Early in the third, Marchand was given a five-minute major for interference when he came charging across the ice to hit John Tavares near the boards, but New York’s Ryan Pulock took a cross-checking penalty when play stopped. Boston’s David Backes also got a major — for head-butting — and a game misconduct later in the third.

DeBrusk made it 2-0 when he collected a loose puck in the slot, spun and beat Halak with a wrister inside the right post 6:45 into the third.

Lee scored on a redirected shot from the top of the crease with 3:08 to play — just after Backes’ penalty expired.

Heinen sealed it with 42 seconds left.

Rask was hardly tested through the first two periods, but made a solid glove stop on Mathew Barzal’s shot from the left circle late in the second.

The best chances of a scoreless first came when Backes had a pair of bids from the edge of the crease seconds apart. Halak flashed his left pad to stop both.

Both teams seemed focused on limiting quality scoring chances from the start of the game — and they did that, relying on tight checking and solid positioning to block shots and limit shooting angles in the first two periods.