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Isles kick off road trip versus Jets

Dec 31, 2014 - 3:55 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The New York Islanders have been one of the NHL's most pleasantly surprising teams this season, and they hope to stay on the right track when they begin a road-heavy stretch of the season Wednesday in Winnipeg.

This New Year's Eve clash kicks off a season-high seven-game road trip for the Islanders, who will play eight of their next nine contests away from Nassau Coliseum.

New York enters Wednesday with 49 points, tying it with Pittsburgh for the Metropolitan Division lead, although the Penguins hold the current tiebreaker.

However, the Isles have done most of their damage this season at home, where they are 14-4-0 compared to a 10-7-1 mark away from Long Island. New York has lost three of its last four as the guest, but it has been successful on the road against the Jets in recent years.

The Islanders own a 4-0-1 record in Winnipeg since the Jets moved there following the 2010-11 season. New York has won five of the last six on the road in this series dating back to the days of the Atlanta Thrashers.

Winnipeg, however, has won two of the last three encounters overall, including a 4-3 regulation win when it visited Long Island on Oct. 28. Andrew Ladd had two goals and Bryan Little registered three assists to help the Jets pick up the road victory.

The Islanders were on the right end of a 4-3 decision the last time out, as they notched an overtime victory Monday against the visiting Washington Capitals. Johnny Boychuk buried a slap shot 2:52 into the extra session to help New York halt a two-game slide and pick up its fifth win in seven games.

"A great shot," Islanders coach Jack Capuano said of Boychuk's winner.

Boychuk's goal from the left circle came just seconds from the end of a four- minute power play the Islanders received after Washington's Evgeny Kuznetsov was whistled for a high sticking double-minor late in the third period. It also followed a furious comeback by the Capitals, who scored three consecutive goals to erase a 3-0 deficit in the third period, tying the game with 2:41 left in regulation on Alex Ovechkin's wrist shot.

Anders Lee, Lubomir Visnovsky and Calvin de Haan also scored for New York, while Jaroslav Halak made 23 saves to push his personal winning streak to five games. Halak returned to action after missing the previous two games with a lower-body injury.

Halak is 5-3-0 with a 3.23 goals against average in his career against the Jets and he could get another start today.

The Jets are hoping to bounce back from a loss in the finale of a home-and- home series against Minnesota. Winnipeg won the road portion with Saturday's 4-3 overtime win, but fell Monday in regulation.

The Wild scored all three of their goals Monday in the second period, as Winnipeg failed to hold onto to an early two-goal lead in the 3-2 setback.

Michael Frolik and Mathieu Perreault each scored power-play goals for the Jets, who had a five-game point streak (4-0-1) snapped. Michael Hutchinson surrendered all three goals on 31 shots.

Ondrej Pavelec could see his first action since Dec. 21 when he dropped an overtime decision against visiting Philadelphia. The veteran goaltender served as the backup to Hutchinson for the last three games and is 4-5-3 with a 2.87 GAA in 12 career games against New York. Hutchinson has never faced the Islanders.

Monday's setback came at the start of a four-game road trip and dropped the Jets to 8-7-3 on home ice. It also marked the team's first tilt since learning forward Evander Kane will miss 4-to-6 weeks with a lower-body injury.