Islanders 4, Panthers 3 (SO)
Frans Nielsen and Kyle Okposo scored in the first two rounds of the shootout as visiting New York skated to its fifth straight victory.
Nielsen skated in and tucked a backhand shot past Roberto Luongo (31 saves) to open the bonus format before Jonathan Huberdeau answered on Florida's first opportunity. Okposo regained the advantage by besting Luongo, and Jaroslav Halak denied both Jussi Jokinen and Brad Boyes to seal the win.
Captain John Tavares and Ryan Strome scored nearly two minutes apart in the second period and Nikolay Kulemin also tallied for the Islanders, who matched a franchise record by winning 11 of their first 16 games of the season. Halak finished with 35 saves but saw his shutout streak end at 156 minutes, 4 seconds.
Jimmy Hayes scored for the third straight contest and added an assist to extend his point streak to four games for the Panthers, who have dropped four of five (1-2-2). Defenseman Brian Campbell netted a power-play goal and rookie Aaron Ekblad also tallied while Jokinen and Vincent Trocheck each notched a pair of assists.
Kulemin cleaned up the rebound of defenseman Johnny Boychuk's shot at 3:57 of the third period to stake New York to a 3-1 lead, but Campbell beat Halak midway into the session for his first goal of the season. Ekblad forged a tie with 2:35 remaining as his wrist shot from the point caromed off the glove of Halak and into the net.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Florida ended the Islanders' shutout streak at 193:48 when Trocheck beat Okposo to a loose puck behind the net and backhanded a centering feed to Hayes, who chipped a shot over Halak 12:37 into the contest to open the scoring. ... Halak preserved a 2-1 lead late in the second period by pinning a bouncing puck to the crossbar with the back of his helmet. An official review confirmed that the puck did not enter the net. ... New York fell just short of its franchise shutout record of 199:24, which was set in 1988. ... The Islanders also won 11 of their first 16 games during the 1976-77, 1982-83, 1987-88 and 2001-02 seasons.