Nielsen pair power Isles
ST. PAUL, Minn. — John Tavares and Frans Nielsen kept the Islanders surging on the road.
Meanwhile, the Wild had their first letdown under their new coach.
Nielsen scored twice, Tavares had a goal and an assist and the Islanders beat Minnesota 41 on Tuesday night.
Matt Martin also scored for the Islanders, who have won six of eight. Jaroslav Halak made 30 saves as New York improved to 20 on a sevengame road trip — its longest of the season.
“It was good for us to get that one early to give us a little bit of confidence on this road trip against a really good team and try to take some of the crowd noise out and get some of the momentum,” Islanders coach Jack Capuano said. “We were resilient tonight and played a good game all the way around. It was one of our best games of the season.”
Devan Dubnyk made 27 saves as the Wild lost for the first time in five games under interim coach John Torchetti.
Chris Porter had his fourth goal of the season for Minnesota, which had scored at least five in the four previous games with Torchetti behind the bench.
“It’s a situation you’re coming off a big game, we gave them a day off,” Torchetti said. “We talked about it, resetting, getting ready, but nothing was going our way. We’re not talking, so you’re not going to have the puck support and you’re not going to have puck possession, and we kept trying to do everything 1on1.”
The Islanders opened the postAllStarbreak schedule with a home win against the Wild, who later fired coach Mike Yeo. The Islanders have gone 731 since the AllStar game.
Minnesota fired Yeo after seven consecutive losses but quickly recovered with Torchetti to remain in the playoff hunt. The Wild swept a threegame road trip through Western Canada, beat Chicago 61 in Sunday’s Stadium Series game at the University of Minnesota and started Tuesday two points behind Colorado for the final wildcard spot in the Western Conference.
But Minnesota is 063 since the start of 2016 in its permanent home, the Xcel Energy Center.
“I don’t think anybody will be surprised if we don’t pick it up here at home that we probably won’t make it,” Wild forward Jarrett Stoll said of the team’s playoff chances. “That’s the honest truth. We’ve got to pick up our home record, our home game in front of our great fans.”
Nielsen and Tavares made sure the Islanders wouldn’t have any slipup on the road. Nielsen deflected Tavares’ pass on the power play to make it 20 in the first period and added a shorthanded, emptynet goal late in the third.