Dobson, Islanders defeat Bruins to end three-game skid

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Noah Dobson scored the go-ahead goal in the third period and had an assist for the New York Islanders in a 4-1 win against the Boston Bruins at UBS Arena on Thursday.

Ilya Sorokin made 26 saves, and Brock Nelson and Mathew Barzal each had a goal and an assist for the Islanders (18-20-6), who had lost three in a row and four of five.
"Obviously, we got the results we wanted, and that's the way we need to play in those tight games," Dobson said. "We've got to find a way to get a big goal and then lock it down when we need to. It was a good effort in the third for sure."
Taylor Hall scored, and Linus Ullmark made 25 saves for the Bruins (27-17-4), who are 1-1-1 on a four-game road trip that will conclude at the Ottawa Senators on Saturday.
"Like I've said before, I don't care what their record is, they're such a hard team to play against," Hall said. "When they're on, when they have four lines going like they did tonight, it's a tough matchup. We have to realize that and know that it's going to be a very hard game from start to finish. I don't know if we played, if we rolled over the lines that we could tonight. We left a couple of points on the table for sure."

Hall gave Boston a 1-0 lead at 17:26 of the first period when his wrist shot from a sharp angle along the goal line found its way past Sorokin.
Boston outshot New York 13-6 in the first.
"We were the better team in the first period; they're at home and obviously have got a lot of pride," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. "What happens a lot is if the home team doesn't have a good first period, usually they'll push in the second. We've addressed that. It happens to us a lot. … We've just got to be ready for it and execute. You've got to be able to execute at a level to sort of stem the pushes that they have."
Jean-Gabriel Pageau tied it 1-1 at 11:30 of the second period, getting the rebound of Dobson's one-timer on the power play.
Sorokin prevented the Bruins from regaining the lead less than a minute later with back-to-back pad saves against Brandon Carlo and Hall, who also hit the crossbar from the left circle at 18:47.
"'Soroky,' the first goal he'd probably want back, but he made some big saves, key saves when it was still 1-1," Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. "From that, we just got confidence. He's such a good goaltender. We're fortunate we have two good goaltenders (also Semyon Varlamov), and we responded.
"You get energy from the big save, you get energy from a big special teams stop or a goal, and we stuck with it. We stuck with it right until the end."

Dobson gave New York a 2-1 lead at 5:50 of the third period with a soft wrist shot from the right point that found its way through traffic.
"I saw I had some time out there and just tried to find a shot lane and throw it on the net," Dobson said. "I was fortunate I could get a bounce off the post and get one in."
Barzal pushed the lead to 3-1 at 13:32 on a rebound of Kieffer Bellows' initial shot, and Nelson scored an empty-net goal at 18:47 for the 4-1 final.
NOTES: Bruins center Patrice Bergeron returned after missing three games because of an upper-body injury. He had two shots and was 12-for-18 on face-offs in 19:46 of ice time. … Boston forward Brad Marchand served the fourth of a six-game suspension. … Defenseman Urho Vaakanainen was activated off injured reserve by the Bruins after missing four games because of an upper-body injury. He had one shot on goal in 20:00. … The Islanders have allowed the first goal in 10 of their past 11 games. … New York was without forward Josh Bailey (upper body), who is day to day. He was replaced by Bellows, who had an assist, five shots and five hits in 14:35. … It was Trotz's 250th regular-season game as Islanders coach (133-87-30).