Rally big win
Isles surge past Stars, move into second wild-card spot
DALLAS — Ryan Strome played beautifully on Thursday night as the Islanders bounced back after a game he called “ugly.”
Strome had a goal and two assists, and the Isles rallied with four straight goals for a 5-4 victory over the Stars.
“A pretty ugly game for us,” Strome said of Saturday’s 7-0 loss at Columbus. “Then tonight, to get down 3-1, you’ve got to kind of look yourself in the mirror. No panic, we got a couple goals and just plugged away.”
Strome scored the game’s first goal, then assisted on Andrew Ladd’s second-period goal and Dennis Seidenberg’s tiebreaker from the blue line at 7:46 of the third.
“Strome made a great play just running it,” Seidenberg said. “I don’t know how came to me on the point.”
Strome had a season-high three points for the second time in five games. His goal came when he skated on a breakaway from his own end to just in front of Niemi and slipped a short-range wrist shot between the goalie’s legs at 9:29 of the first period.
The Islanders, in a tight race for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference moved ahead of the Maple Leafs for the spot with the victory. The Isles, who have 70 points, have won four of their past five games and are 3-1 on a ninegame road trip. They were 713-4 away from home when the trip began.
“For the most part, good road hockey, and that’s winning you hockey games,” Seidenberg said.
Nick Leddy and Nikolay Kulemin also scored in the third for the Islanders, who outshot Dallas 14-7 in the period.
“They get two good chances and we’re down by two, and it doesn’t look good,” Islanders interim coach Doug Weight said. “But [we] came out a confident hockey club. Really big on the road to come out with a third like that.”
Stars captain Jamie Benn scored on the power play in the first period and shorthanded in the third. Radek Faksa and Jason Spezza had second-period goals that gave Dallas its 3-1 lead.
Thomas Greiss made 22 saves for the Isles, while Antti Niemi stopped 28 shots for Dallas.
Joshua Ho-Sang, a 21year-old center, made his NHL debut for the Islanders.