Dostal helps Ducks hold off Islanders

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Lukas Dostal made 40 saves, including 17 in the third period, and the Anaheim Ducks defeated the New York Islanders 3-1 at UBS Arena on Tuesday.

“He was terrific," Anaheim coach Greg Cronin said. "We knew that they shot the puck a lot going into it. There’s certain teams in the League that have a certain style of hockey that invites a lot of shots. Lukas did a great job and I thought we did a good job of blocking shots, too.”

Frank Vatrano had a goal and an assist, Leo Carlsson and Troy Terry each scored a power-play goal, and Mason McTavish had two assists for the Ducks (4-4-1), who had lost two in a row.

“Great effort, and a good bounce-back [game],” Dostal said. “I feel like we’re playing the right game, kind of a boring road game, and it paid off. Guys took a lot of shots and made a lot of sacrifices back there. We were putting the pucks deep. We were winning a lot of battles. And so, that’s a good win for us.”

Mathew Barzal scored, and Ilya Sorokin made 19 saves for the Islanders (3-4-2), who have lost three of their past four (1-3-0).

”It is frustrating because we played a good game and came up short,” New York coach Patrick Roy said. “We work extremely hard. I mean, the guys are working. They're on top of them. Just unfortunately for us, we don't put the puck in the net when we have good chances, and I thought that was the difference tonight because we were by far the best team on the ice.”

Carlsson gave the Ducks a 1–0 lead at 14:05 of the first period. After McTavish fed Vatrano at the top of the right face-off circle, Carlsson deflected his shot past Sorokin’s glove from the right side.

Dostal kept it a one-goal game by making a kick save on Brock Nelson’s tip from point-blank range at 10:06 of the second period.

Terry extended the lead to 2-0 from the right post at 14:07. McTavish skated to the front of the net before passing the puck past Islanders defenseman Noah Dobson and across the crease to Terry, who scored his 100th NHL goal.

“I think we're just supporting each other [on the power play],” Terry said. “Even when it goes off the rails a little bit, just knowing that you’ve got three or four on the battle, knowing where your releases are, and once we got the monkey off the back, I think, just the plays around the net, like the play McTavish made to me, Leo [Carlsson] getting a stick on Frank [Vatrano’s] shot, just, maybe, loosened up the grip a little bit and gave us a little more just confidence around the net.”

Dostal got his blocker up to stop Anders Lee’s one-timer on a 2-on-1 at 15:57.

Barzal then cut it to 2-1 with a power-play goal at 5:31 of the third. He took a cross-ice pass from Bo Horvat in the left circle and scored with a one-timer over Dostal's right shoulder.

Vatrano scored into an empty net at 19:00 for the 3-1 final.

“That's just the way it's going right now,” Islanders forward Kyle Palmieri said. “But it's up to us to change that. It's nobody else's fault. Nobody else can go out there and do it, and no one is going to feel sorry for us. It's up to us to change that, and we have the guys in this room to do it. We've proven that these few years I've been here.”

NOTES: Terry has had one point in each of the past eight games (five goals, three assists). He reached 100 goals in 359 games. ... Dostal has allowed two goals or fewer in four straight starts. … Sorokin has stopped 122 of 131 shots this season (.931 save percentage). ... New York defenseman Alexander Romanov missed a second straight game with an upper-body injury he sustained in a 4-3 overtime win against the New Jersey Devils on Friday. … The Islanders have lost four of five home games to this season (1-3-1). … New York forward Hudson Fasching played 7:56 in his season debut.