ELMONT, N.Y. — There was no late magic that could have saved the Ducks this time around.
Anders Lee scored twice and had two assists, and David Rittich made 31 saves as the New York Islanders beat the Ducks, 5-2, on Thursday night.
Simon Holmstrom had a goal and two assists and defensemen Travis Mitchell and Ryan Pulock each scored as the Islanders (18-11-3) won for the fifth time in six games.
Leo Carlsson and Troy Terry scored for the Ducks (19-11-1), who saw their three-game winning streak snapped two nights after a dramatic last-second goal from Beckett Sennecke propelled them to a shootout victory over the Penguins in Pittsburgh. Ducks goaltender Ville Husso made 32 saves, but the Ducks found themselves in a three-goal hole after one period.
“We had a really good first period and we were down 3-0,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville told NHL.com. “That was the game right there. We had good pace, we had good energy. They got the breaks, and we were chasing the game after that. They checked pretty good.”
Islanders leading scorer Bo Horvat left about seven minutes into the second period after his right skate got tangled up with the right skate of Ducks defenseman Drew Helleson, which caused his left knee to bend awkwardly. Horvat, who has 31 points (19 goals, 12 assists), immediately exited the ice and the Islanders announced he was done for the night just before the third period.
“The only update I have is that it’s a lower-body injury and he’s going to be day to day,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy told NHL.com after the game. “You don’t like to see any of your players get hurt, but that’s all I can say for now.”
The Islanders scored three times on just nine shots during an 11-minute span in the first, starting with Mitchell’s first NHL goal at the 8:18 mark. The 26-year-old, who was playing his seventh game following his recall from Bridgeport of the AHL, was in the right place at the right time. Scott Mayfield’s shot glanced off the boards to the right of Husso but caromed around the Ducks’ net and to Mitchell, who buried the rebound past a sprawling Husso.
Lee scored on a power play just 1:58 later, when he redirected Tony DeAngelo’s shot from the high slot.
Lee and DeAngelo hooked up again on the power play with 54 seconds left in the period. Another shot from the slot by DeAngelo glanced off Husso before Lee tucked home the rebound past Husso’s glove for his eighth goal of the season.
The goal came shortly after Rittich stopped Frank Vatrano on a short-handed breakaway.
“Tough coming back from 3-0 in this game,” Quenneville told NHL.com. “We had a decent start to the year, and now we’re in a different stretch here. We try to get points every day, every game. Our team game had signs there, but when you get down 3-0, it gets a little bit wide open. We’re trying to be so creative that it sometimes could be hazardous.”
The Ducks answered with a power play goal 5:34 into the second. Terry fed a drop pass to Carlsson, who moved into the left faceoff circle before firing a shot that sailed past Rittich into the far corner of the net for his team-leading 17th goal.
Terry pulled the Ducks within a goal by scoring a short-handed goal 2:37 into the third. Ryan Poehling won a race for the puck with Matthew Schaefer before passing across to Terry, who was all alone in the low slot and made a move before beating Rittich five-hole.
Holmstrom gave the hosts a two-goal cushion again less than four minutes later, and Pulock scored his first goal of the season with 5:14 left when his wrist shot from the right boards deflected off the stick of Chris Kreider and over the glove of Husso.
“Yeah, I mean, these games are going to happen,” Terry told NHL.com. “I felt we came out really strong. We could tell we had our legs tonight. … Things kind of escalated quickly in a short amount of time.”
The Islanders are 14-6-2 in their last 22 games and have remained strong against top-tier competition since losing to the Washington Capitals on Nov. 30. New York has since defeated Tampa Bay twice, plus Colorado and Vegas.
Rittich improved to 7-3-1 with a sharp performance.
UP NEXT
The Ducks play at New Jersey on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. PT.