Brock Nelson caps hat trick in OT as Islanders beat Red Wings, 7-6
NEW YORK -- Brock Nelson scored his third goal of the game 3:15 into overtime and New York Islanders, boosted by rookie Mathew Barzal's five assists, emerged with a wild 7-6 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Friday night.
The Islanders trailed 5-2 with 6:33 left in regulation when Detroit's Tyler Bertuzzi was assessed a major game misconduct for slashing Cal Clutterbuck.
New York took full advantage as Nelson, Anders Lee, Nick Leddy and Josh Bailey scored power-play goals in the span of 3:37 for a 6-5 lead. The four power-play goals in the third period set a franchise record.
Bailey's goal gave New York its first lead of the game with 1:49 left in regulation. But Mike Green's sixth of the season with 29 seconds remaining forced overtime.
Nelson then completed his second career hat trick with his 14th goal, assisted by Barzal, and sending Detroit to its third straight loss.
Barzal became the first rookie in NHL history to have a pair of five-assist games in a season. It was also his third five-point game, the first rookie in 100 years to accomplish that feat. Joe Malone did it in the NHL's first season (1917-18).
Barzal is the fifth player overall to have multiple five-assist games in a season over the last 30 seasons, joining Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Peter Forsberg and Pat Lafontaine.
Jaroslav Halak made six saves on seven shots in the third period to pick up the win. He replaced starter Thomas Greiss, who allowed five goals on 32 shots.
Jordan Eberle also scored for New York. Anthony Mantha, Martin Frk, Henrik Zetterberg, Darren Helm and Niklas Kronwall scored for Detroit.
The Islanders had allowed an NHL-high 200 goals this season going into the game. They also had scored 181, third most in the league.
Detroit took a 3-0 lead in the first period. Mantha scored his 17th goal 2:12 into the game, Frk followed with his 10th at 5:12 and Zetterberg snapped a rebound from the right hashmark over Greiss' glove at 14:40.
Eberle's 19th midway through the second period made it 3-1 and Nelson scored early in the third. Detroit responded with two goals in 2:12 to go ahead 5-3 after Helm's tap-in at 7:42 and Kronwall's score at 9:54. Following Kronwall's goal, New York coach Doug Weight replaced Greiss in net with Halak.
Game notes
The game was the second of three regular-season meetings for the Eastern Conference franchises. The Islanders and Red Wings will meet once more on April 7 in Detroit. . New York defenseman Johnny Boychuk dressed and played for the first time since Dec. 28. He had missed 18 games with an upper body injury before being activated from the injured reserve Thursday. He played 15:18 paired with Leddy, and fought Detroit's Justin Abdelkader late in the second period, in which he landed three straight punches to the Red Wings forward's while the two were entangled with linesmen. . New York scratched D Dennis Seidenberg, C Alan Quine and C Tanner Fritz. .Detroit scratched D Xavier Ouellet, LW David Booth and RW Luke Witkowski.
UP NEXT
Red Wings: At Washington on Sunday afternoon.
Islanders: Host Calgary on Sunday night.
