Staal, Kunin lift Wild to win over Islanders
SAINT PAUL, Minn. -- Eric Staal and rookie Luke Kunin scored short-handed goals to spur the Minnesota Wild to a 6-4 win over the New York Islanders on Thursday night.
Staal scored his 18th career short-handed goal to give the Wild a 3-0 lead late in the first period and then assisted on Kunin's short-handed goal in the second.
Marcus Foligno, Jason Zucker, Jonas Brodin and Zack Mitchell added even-strength goals for Minnesota (3-3-2), which built a 6-2 lead before holding on for its first home win of the season.
Nick Leddy, Anders Lee, Mathew Barzal and Anthony Beauvillier scored for the Islanders (5-4-1), who saw their three-game winning streak snapped.
Thanks to a pair of early penalties on the Islanders, the Wild got 40 seconds of 5-on-3 power play time and outshot their visitors 10-0 in the first five minutes of the game.
Foligno gave Minnesota the early lead, scoring off a rebound of a long-range blast by defenseman Jared Spurgeon. It was the second goal of the year for Foligno, who is playing with a full cage facemask due to a fractured facial bone.
Zucker doubled the lead two minutes later off a nice feed from Mikael Granlund, and Staal got Minnesota's first short-handed goal of the season, scoring on a breakaway after Leddy fumbled a puck at the blue line.
The Islanders finally had an answer when Beauvillier tipped a shot by Johnny Boychuk between Minnesota goalie Devan Dubnyk's knees to make it 3-1 after 20 minutes.
The teams traded goals in the second, with Kunin scoring his first NHL goal, for a 4-1 lead 7:17 into the period.
Leddy made up for his defensive mistake with a goal in the final 90 seconds of the middle period as Minnesota led 4-2 after two.
Mitchell got his first NHL goal in the third period, followed quickly by Brodin, who got his first goal of the season.
Lee scored near the midway point of the third for the Islanders to pull them back within three. Barzal scored with 3.1 seconds left for the final margin.
Thomas Greiss made 27 saves for New York, while Dubnyk stopped 29 shots.
NOTES: Injured Wild RW Nino Niederreiter skated with the team in practice on Thursday but was unable to play in the game. He has now missed five games with a high left ankle sprain. ... After making him a healthy scratch in their previous two games, the Islanders sent F Josh Ho-Sang to their Bridgeport AHL team prior to the road trip in order to get him some on-ice time. ... Rookie RW Luke Kunin, signed late last season from the University of Wisconsin, became the first player in Wild history to score his first NHL goal short-handed. ... Minnesota hosts the Penguins on Saturday. The Islanders visit Nashville on Saturday.