Islanders 4 - 5 Wild
Final
  for this game

Four-goal 3rd period leads Wild over Isles

Dec 10, 2014 - 6:41 AM St. Paul, MN (SportsNetwork.com) - Nino Niederreiter scored the winning goal with 4:33 to play as the Minnesota Wild rallied in the third period to take a 5-4 win over the New York Islanders.

Mikko Koivu and Thomas Vanek each posted a goal and an assist while Jason Pominville and Erik Haula also scored for the Wild, who have won two of their last three. Niklas Backstrom made 15 saves for the win.

"We were able to collect ourselves and have much better focus in our game after the first period," said Wild head coach Mike Yeo. "We've got to stop having these bad starts because it's not always going to end this way."

Josh Bailey, Matt Martin, Brock Nelson and Michael Grabner all lit the lamp for the Islanders, who have lost their last two. Chad Johnson allowed all five goals on 30 shots.

"We've got to learn from these losses," said New York head coach Jack Capuano. "It's not like we played a terrible game, but I don't like the fact that they were throwing us around our net tonight."

Trailing by three goals entering the third, the Wild got one back 2:51 in after Koivu skated from the right of the net to the circle and used a defender as a screen to zip a wrister past Johnson.

The next goal didn't come until 11:03 when Haula's turnaround shot from the right side went off the skate of New York's Thomas Hickey in front and went in.

Just 45 seconds later, the Wild tied the game as a right circle faceoff win saw the team control the puck, and a shot on net from the right point saw Vanek eventually jam home the rebound.

Niederreiter scored the winner less than four minutes later as the bouncing puck wound up in front and he tapped home his own rebound.

The Isles were given a power play with 2:28 to play and pulled Johnson to skate 6-on-4 for much of the advantage, but were unable to pot the equalizer.

It was all New York in the first period as Grabner scored on a wrister from the slot 8:31 in, and Nelson tipped in a Nick Leddy shot at 17:15 on the power play.

Just 32 seconds later, the Isles made it a 3-0 game when Martin shot home a rebound from the left side.

In the second period, Minnesota defender Keith Ballard was checked into the mid-ice boards by Matt Martin and stayed on the ice for several minutes. He was eventually helped into the dressing room and taken to a local hospital for further evaluation. No penalty was called on the play.

The Wild got one back at 9:01 of the second on the power play thanks to Pominville's tip of a Ryan Suter shot.

New York didn't have its first shot of the second period until there was 2:43 left in the frame, but the team made it count as Bailey buried a backhand for his fourth of the year.

Game Notes

Minnesota hits the road for the next three games starting Thursday in San Jose ... New York plays in St. Louis on Thursday ... Each team went 1-for-5 on the power play ... Suter had three assists in the contest.






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