Islanders hold off Blackhawks in fourth straight win

CHICAGO -- Brock Nelson had a goal and an assist for the New York Islanders in their fourth straight win, 3-1 against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Tuesday.

Anders Lee also scored, and Ilya Sorokin made 21 saves for the Islanders (6-4-0), who have allowed two goals or fewer in three of the four games during the streak.
"The players have [done] a great job over the last three games," Sorokin said. "I've had [easy looks at] pucks. So, it's big work from our defensemen and forwards."

Jonathan Toews scored, and Arvid Soderblom made 28 saves for the Blackhawks (4-4-2) in their fourth straight loss (0-2-2) after he entered at 2:56 of the first period, when Alex Stalock left the game following a collision with Casey Cizikas.
Stalock made two saves. Cizikas was assessed a five-minute major penalty for goalie interference and a game misconduct.
Chicago coach Luke Richardson said Stalock would be placed in concussion protocol.
"I think you have to," Richardson said. "I think they said they're just going to let it settle for the night, see how he responds in the morning. The doctors say that's normal. That's what they usually do, and they get a better bead on how he's going to come out of that. Right now, he's probably out."
The Blackhawks are already without No. 1 goalie Petr Mrazek, who injured his groin Oct. 21.
"It was only three minutes in, so that makes it easier," Soderblom said. "It's hard always hard to come in like that. It was nice we had that five-minute power play so I could do some skating and get warm."

Lee gave New York a 1-0 lead on the power play at 17:35 of the first when he poked in the rebound of a shot from the slot by Nelson.
Nelson made it 2-0 at 7:23 of the third period. After Kyle Palmieri blocked a shot while playing without his stick, Ross Johnston moved the puck ahead to Nelson, who carried the puck down the right wing and scored from the right face-off circle.
"We just wanted to get on the attack, get on the offense," Nelson said. "I thought we did a pretty good job of that, of dictating more of the play. Whenever you get a goaltender fresh or not, you've got to press him and get in there. I thought we did a pretty good job of getting some pucks to the net."
Toews cut it to 2-1 at 10:19 when he redirected a shot by Caleb Jones for a power-play goal.
"I thought we came out a little bit flat," Jones said. "It was a 1-0 game going into the third, and unfortunately, they got that one, but we battled back and got that one on the power play and we couldn't find that other one. We're in all these hockey games, we've just got to find a way to start pulling them out.
"I think we're playing hard, we're playing within our structure. Obviously, we're going to keep trying to get better every day and improve little things, but we have to find a way to start winning these games. That's how you become a really good team, when you can win more of these games than lose them."

Zach Parise scored an empty-net goal with 14 seconds left for the 3-1 final.
"I liked our compete, and I liked our battle," New York coach Lane Lambert said. "I thought going down a centerman early in the game, the guys showed a lot of resolve, guys who played in some unfamiliar areas. I thought they picked up the slack."
NOTES: The Islanders were without forward Matt Martin, whose wife gave birth to their second child. He was replaced by Johnston, who had an assist in 8:41 of ice time. … The Blackhawks placed defenseman Seth Jones (right thumb) on injured reserve and recalled defenseman
Alex Regula
from Rockford of the American Hockey League.