Tavares scores twice as Islanders win Weight's debut
NEW YORK -- John Tavares scored in the first and third periods Thursday night and Thomas Greiss earned his second straight shutout as the New York Islanders won Doug Weight's debut as interim head coach by beating the Dallas Stars 3-0 at Barclays Center.
The Islanders (18-17-8), who have the fewest points in the Eastern Conference, have won two straight. New York beat the Boston Bruins, 4-0, in Jack Capuano's final game as head coach on Monday. Weight was promoted from assistant coach when Capuano, the second-longest tenured coach in franchise history, was fired after six-plus seasons at the helm Tuesday.
The Stars (19-20-8) were looking to win back-to-back games for the first time since a three-game streak from Dec. 23-29.
Both of Tavares' goals were highlight-reel worthy scores.
In the first, Tavares took a pass from Anders Lee inside the the right faceoff circle before realizing he was about to be double-teamed by a pair of Stars, defenseman John Klingberg and center Radek Fakea.
Tavares passed the puck through Klingberg, skated past Klingberg, regained the puck and, with Fakea bearing down behind him, fired a shot from point-blank range past Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen.
In the third, Tavares scored a short-handed goal following a furious Stars flurry in which Tyler Seguin's shot hit the crossbar and Greiss shoveled away a shot in the crease by Antoine Roussel.
Nikolay Kulemin cleared the puck and Tavares caught up to it at center ice before beating Lehtonen on the breakaway.
Calvin De Haan added an empty net goal with four seconds left.
Greiss recorded 23 saves three days after turning back 32 shots against the Bruins. Lehtonen notched 33 saves.
NOTES: The Islanders scratched RW Cal Clutterbuck (lower body) and LW Andrew Ladd (upper body), each of whom missed their second straight game, as well as D Johnny Boychuk (upper body), who was sidelined for the second time in three games. ... The in-season coaching change for the Islanders is the ninth in franchise history and the first since 2010-11, when Jack Capuano replaced the fired Scott Gordon after 17 games. ... The Stars scratched LW Curtis McKenzie and RW Brett Ritchie. ... In addition, Stars D Johnny Oduya (lower body), who was hurt in Tuesday night's 7-6 win over the New York Rangers, was placed on injured reserve. Oduya was replaced in the lineup by D Jordie Benn.