Brock Nelson scored a third-period hat trick Saturday afternoon for the host New York Islanders, who extended their point streak to six games by beating the visiting Dallas Stars 4-2.
The hat trick was the fourth of Nelson's career. It gave him eight goals in his last eight games and 27 goals in 50 games this season, breaking his previous career-high of 26 goals set in 68 games in 2019-20.
Ryan Pulock opened the scoring in the second period for the Islanders, who have won two straight and five of six (5-0-1) while building their second-longest point streak of the season. New York went 5-0-2 from Oct. 19 through Nov. 6.
Islanders' goalie Semyon Varlamov made 37 saves.
It was a costly loss for the Stars, who have lost four of five (1-4-0). Dallas entered Saturday one point behind the Vegas Golden Knights in the race for the final wild card spot in the Western Conference.
The Stars outshot the Islanders 12-6 during a scoreless first period before the teams swapped goals in the second.
Pulock collected the rebound of Adam Pelech's shot off the boards to the right of Dallas' net and uncorked a 100.8 mph shot that sailed beyond the glove of goalie Jake Oettinger, who was screened by Harley and New York's Casey Cizikas, at the 3:16 mark.
Denis Gurianov tied the score for the Stars with 1:14 left in the second after Ryan Suter's pass from behind the Dallas net sailed through the zones and to Jacob Peterson, who eluded Scott Mayfield's attempt to poke the puck free. Peterson shuffled the puck for a few strides before dishing to Gurianov.
In the third some puck luck helped Nelson score on a power play generated when Radek Faksa was whistled for interference 3:29 into the period. Nelson put the Islanders ahead 48 seconds later, when his shot bounced off Oettinger, over his head and into the back of the net while Oettinger scrambled in the crease looking for the puck.
Nelson doubled the lead just 1:38 later, when he took a cross-crease pass from Anthony Beauvillier and tucked a shot over the glove of a sprawling Oettinger.
Jacob Peterson scored in the third for the Stars from point-blank range off with 8:21 left to close the score to 3-2. Oettinger was pulled with 1:45 left, but the Stars didn't build a serious threat before Nelson scored into the empty net from center ice with 19.5 seconds remaining.
--Field Level Media