Filip Hronek and Quinn Hughes scored within a span of 2:17 late in the first period Tuesday night for the visiting Vancouver Canucks, who continued surging with a 5-2 win over the New York Islanders in Elmont, N.Y.
Elias Pettersson and Tyler Myers scored in the second and Dakota Joshua added an empty-netter with 1:28 left in the third for the Canucks, who have collected 17 goals while winning three straight to improve to 3-1-0 on a season-long seven-game road trip. Goalie Casey DeSmith made 18 saves.
Brock Nelson scored twice for the Islanders, who have lost four of five (1-3-1) and eight of 12 (4-5-3). Goalie Ilya Sorokin recorded 29 saves.
The Islanders outshot the Canucks 10-6 before Vancouver began taking control by scoring twice on its final five shots of the first.
Islanders center Casey Cizikas was injured while blocking Hronek’s first shot in a sequence that ended with Hronek pouncing on a rebound of a shot by Ilya Mikheyev and beating Sorokin stick side with 3:35 left. Cizikas was helped off the ice by defenseman Scott Mayfield and returned for one shift in the second before exiting for good.
Hughes quickly doubled the lead with an impressive unassisted goal. The defenseman picked up a loose puck behind the Islanders’ net and weaved to the top of the right faceoff circle before whirling, heading into the slot and sending a shot past Sorokin as he was screened by teammate Noah Dobson.
A turnover by the Islanders deep in their zone led to Pettersson scoring 10:20 into the second period. It was his seventh goal in the last five games. Sorokin deflected a shot by Hronek and Adam Pelech began heading up the ice with the puck, but Hronek poked it loose and Pettersson and J.T. Miller exchanged the puck in the crease before Pettersson buried a shot into the right corner.
Nelson scored his first goal on the power play 51 seconds later, when Kyle Palmieri sent a backhanded pass across the crease before Nelson went to one knee and fired a shot over DeSmith’s glove. Myers again put the Canucks up by three with 2:36 remaining.
Nelson scored with 4:45 left in the third before Joshua iced the victory seconds after Sorokin was pulled for an extra attacker.
–Field Level Media
