"Can't say enough good things. They're amazing," Canucks goalie Casey DeSmith said of his team's play in front of him. "[They were] taking care of the slot, taking care of the puck, great on breakouts, and were talking to me all night. I think that was probably the best game that I've been a part of as far as how well we broke the puck out. I think that had a lot to do with our success, and then the guys took over in the offensive zone."
Filip Hronek had a goal and an assist, Elias Pettersson scored his 20th of the season, and Conor Garland had two assists for the Canucks (27-11-3), who were coming off a 6-3 win at the New York Rangers on Monday. DeSmith made 18 saves.
"I thought when we came out the first bunch of shifts, I knew these guys were ready to play," Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said. "To win three games against New York and New Jersey (6-4 on Saturday), it's a tough division."
Brock Nelson scored two goals for the Islanders (18-12-10), who have lost two straight and four of five (1-3-1). Ilya Sorokin made 29 saves.
"I thought we were fine for the first 15 minutes," New York coach Lane Lambert said. "Took a penalty. They got momentum off their power play. To come out of that period down 2-0 was very difficult to swallow, and then we just couldn't sustain anything. Give them credit, they played well."
Hronek gave the Canucks a 1-0 lead at 16:25 of the first period. With Casey Cizikas down after blocking his initial one-timer, Hronek got the puck all alone in the right circle and roofed a shot over Sorokin's blocker.
Cizikas returned later in the first period but left for the remainder of the game after taking two shifts in the second.
Hughes made it 2-0 at 18:42 of the first. He got the puck behind the net and skated up along the right boards before curling back toward the slot and scoring past a screened Sorokin.
"I was kind of just looking to give myself a chance where it goes in and try to get through," Hughes said. "I think that's the main thing."
Pettersson pushed it to 3-0 at 10:20 of the second period. Hronek lifted the stick of Adam Pelech in the Islanders' zone, leading to Pettersson finishing off a return backdoor pass from J.T. Miller at the right post.
"I was just trying to take a couple of hard strides to get out of trouble before moving it, and I got my pocket picked," said Pelech, who was making his return after missing 20 games with an upper-body injury. "So, that's one I want back for sure."
