Islanders 3 - 2 Bruins
Final
  for this game

Ex-Bruin Johnson leads Isles past former club

Oct 24, 2014 - 6:35 AM Boston, MA (SportsNetwork.com) - Chad Johnson returned to TD Garden and backstopped his new team to a win over his old club.

Johnson made 14 of his 30 saves in the third period as the New York Islanders held on for a 3-2 win over the Boston Bruins, who saw captain Zdeno Chara depart in the first period for an undisclosed reason.

Last season, Johnson served as Tuukka Rask's backup and had 17 wins with a 2.10 goals-against average and .925 save percentage in 27 games for the Bruins.

Kyle Okposo, Frans Nielsen and Cal Clutterbuck scored for the Islanders, who had lost two straight after opening the season with four wins in a row.

Johnny Boychuk returned to Boston for the first time since being traded to the Islanders on Oct. 4.

"It was a tough game, looking across the ice and playing against your friends," Boychuk said. "But when you're on the ice, it's business. I'm glad we got the two points and we're looking forward to the next game."

Milan Lucic and Chris Kelly had the goals for Boston, which was seeking its third straight win. Niklas Svedberg, the backup to Rask this season, stopped 35-of-38 shots.

Bruins head coach Claude Julien didn't provide an update on Chara following the game. The towering defenseman completed his last shift with 8:12 remaining in the first period. He delivered a check to John Tavares on his prior shift and didn't appear to be injured on the play.

TSN reported Chara suffered ligament damage to his left knee and is expected to be out 4-to-6 weeks, at which point they'll evaluate a need for surgery or not.

Boston applied furious pressure on the Islanders in the third period, and Kelly buried a rebound at the 9:49 mark to trim the deficit to 3-2.

The Islanders were able to survive with Svedberg on the bench for an extra attacker in the late stages.

"You can't win hockey games just by playing a period," Julien said.

New York opened the scoring 6:21 into the game. Josh Bailey tried feeding Nielsen a pass from the right circle. The puck deflected off the skate of Boston defenseman Dougie Hamilton, but Nielsen was still able to poke it in.

Lucic tied it for the Bruins, driving the net and redirecting Seth Griffith's pass with 1:39 remaining in the first period.

The Islanders took a 2-1 lead 90 seconds into the second period. Okposo was positioned in front of Svedberg and batted the rebound of Brian Strait's point shot out of the air.

Clutterbuck made it 3-1 when he collected Matt Martin's backhand feed from behind the net and beat Svedberg high on the glove side from in close at 9:27 of the second.

Game Notes

Griffith picked up his first NHL assist ... Bailey left the game with a hand injury and didn't return ... Defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky made his season debut for the Islanders in place of Travis Hamonic (upper-body injury). Visnovsky missed the first six games with a back injury.






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