Lee lifts Islanders over Sharks
NEW YORK -- Anders Lee scored twice and the New York Islanders pulled away in the third period for a 5-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night at Barclays Center.
The Islanders (4-3-1) have won two straight games for the first time this season. The Sharks (3-4-0) had their two-game winning streak snapped.
Andrew Ladd scored the tiebreaking goal 3:12 into the third before Lee and John Tavares teamed up for the decisive score with 8:13 left. Tavares skated up the right side and shuffled the puck as San Jose's Brent Burns tried to get in position to block any pass or shot.
But Tavares eventually made Burns lunge, at which point he dished the puck to a wide-open Lee.
Lee opened the scoring in the second for the Islanders, who received a goal less than a minute later from Josh Bailey. Tavares added an empty-netter with 55.4 seconds left.
Thomas Greiss recorded 28 saves for Houston.
Logan Couture scored all three goals for the Sharks for his second career hat trick. Couture's final goal pulled the Sharks within 4-3 with 1:52 to go. Aaron Dell made 18 saves.
A scoreless first period yielded a flurry of activity in the second period, when the two teams combined to score four goals in a span of 6:18. Couture opened the scoring when his shot sailed into a crowded goal mouth, under a jumping Joe Pavelski and past Greiss.
The Islanders tied the score and took the lead with a pair of nifty goals only 58 seconds apart.
Nick Leddy passed from behind the net to Lee, who poked the puck past Dell despite Chris Tierney and Joakim Ryan both trying to converge upon the puck.
Lee's goal was still being announced when Bailey picked off Thornton's attempted clearing pass to Pavelski, faked out Pavelski and then danced with the puck in front of the net before burying a backhand shot at the doorstep at the 8:31 mark.
Couture's second goal tied the score with 7:16 left in the period when he fired a shot under Greiss' stick.
NOTES: The Islanders scratched C Josh Ho-Sang, LW Nikolay Kulemin and D Scott Mayfield. ... Twenty-eight former Islanders, including four-time Stanley Cup winners Clark Gillies, Butch Goring, Bobby Nystrom and Bryan Trottier, were introduced before the game as part of the Islanders' alumni weekend. ... The Sharks scratched D Dylan DeMelo, C Barclay Goodrow and RW Joel Ward. ... The Sharks completed their first back-to-back set of the season. They went 9-6-1 in the second game of back-to-backs last year.