Isles be darned! Skate past ’hawks in 3rd

THE ISLANDERS entered Saturday night on a three-game losing streak, easily their worst stretch of the season. So of course they turned things around against the hottest team in hockey.

With Isles great Clark Gillies in attendance, they returned to the win column by coming from behind to beat the Blackhawks, 3-2, at a sold-out and rowdy Nassau Coliseum to snap Chicago’s winning streak at eight games. The Isles, who finished in last place a season ago, improved to 20-10-0.

Kyle Okposo and Lubomir Visnovsky scored in the third period as the Isles overcame a 2-1 deficit, while Jaroslav Halak (23 saves) snapped a personal twogame losing streak with a solid performance in net.

So does a win over the mighty Blackhawks (20-9-1) mean critics might have overreacted to the Isles’ three-game slide?

“Yes,” Okposo said with a smile. “We want to be on a curve that keeps t ick i ng upwa rd, but there’s going to be peaks and valleys in that. As long as you’re getting better as a team throughout the season, that’s what we want to do.”

After a scoreless first period, the Isles dominated most of the second period. Still, Chicago’s Dan Carcillo put the Blackhawks ahead at 14:25 with a shot that deflected up into the air and then deflected off Halak’s back and in to make it 1-0. But six seconds later, after the ensuing faceoff, Cal Clutterbuck turned an uncharacteristic Duncan Keith turnover into a goal to knot the score.

Patrick Kane put the Blackhawks back on top, 2-1, early in the third with a beautiful, backhanded transition goal after beating Visnovsky in a footrace.

“It was an unreal goal, backhanded top (shelf),” Visnovsky said. “I tried to hit his stick, and if I hit it a little bit earlier the puck doesn’t go on the net. I was a little bit (ticked) off.”

Nearly seven minutes later, Visnovsky would get his revenge. After Okposo’s power-play goal tied the score, 2-2, at 10:10, Visnovsky froze several froze several Chicago defenders and beat Blackhawks goaltender Scott Darling high to the stick side 51 seconds later.

“To play a team, a Stanley Cup (caliber) team that had won (eight) straight, this is a game where you can measure yourself up against them,” Isles coach Jack Capuano said. “If we do the right things, we can compete with anybody.”

TOEWS PLAYS: Two days after a scary hit sent him headfirst into the boards against Boston, Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews logged 18:35 of ice time. “I feel great,” Toews said beforehand, according to ESPN.com. “I felt fine after the hit. The training staff just held me back as a precaution.”