Pageau has 4 points, Islanders cruise past Capitals

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Jean-Gabriel Pageau had two goals and two assists, Julien Gauthier had two goals and an assist, and the New York Islanders defeated the Washington Capitals 5-1 at UBS Arena on Friday.

The Islanders were coming off a 7-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins at home Wednesday.

"That game the other night, none of us were happy with it," New York coach Lane Lambert said. "There wasn't one player in there that wanted to come to the rink and lose the way we lost. But it happens. Sometimes these things do happen. I knew we would respond, and we did."

Ilya Sorokin made 26 saves and came within 18 seconds of a shutout for the Islanders (17-9-9). Bo Horvat had two assists.

"It felt like we had it tonight," New York captain Anders Lee said. "I think you saw the response to a bad game. And that was evident tonight and that was more indicative of who we have been of late. And we got back to that, and the reason why we played a really solid game is because guys were working, guys are smart. We didn't have as many turnovers. We played the game much better tonight, and then we buried our chances."

Nicolas Aube-Kubel scored for the Capitals (17-11-5), who have lost three in a row. Charlie Lindgren made the save on all three shots he faced before leaving the game at 6:46 of the first period with an upper-body injury. Darcy Kuemper made 24 saves.

"We're having trouble getting to the middle as much as we'd like," Washington defenseman John Carlson said. "The chances that we do have are definitely not going in. There's a combination of everything. … Certainly tonight, people weren't making the same reads. We just felt disconnected."

The Islanders took a 1-0 lead at 4:51 of the second period. Pageau received a feed from Alexander Romanov and scored from the left face-off circle with a one-timer over the glove of Kuemper.

"To be honest, I shot it as hard as I could," Pageau said. "Bounces were kind of on my side today. Some nights, most of them, the bounces haven't [been on my side] so far, but if you keep digging and keep grinding, sometimes it goes your way, and it felt good."

Noah Dobson extended it to 2-0 at 6:01. He skated onto a Mathew Barzal drop pass at the top of the right circle and scored with a slap shot to the glove side.

Gauthier scored twice within 18 seconds to make it 4-0 in the third period.

He put home a rebound from the slot at 10:10 following a Pageau wrist shot, then finished with a backhand around the right pad of Kuemper at 10:28 off a pass from Pageau.

"It feels awesome," Gauthier said of his first multigoal game in the NHL (169 games). "It was fun to see our line get going like that. I thought we got rewarded, because a lot of games we were playing really well, but it just wasn't really going in. So it was fun tonight to also see Jean-Gabriel Pageau getting all those points. I was really happy for him."

Pageau made it 5-0 at 14:26 with his second of the game, scoring to the glove side from in tight.

Aube-Kubel scored at 19:42 for the 5-1 final after Sorokin whiffed on a poke-check attempt.

Washington defenseman Martin Fehervary left the game at 6:46 of the first after colliding with Lee before crashing into the end boards.

Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said Lindgren and Fehervary will be out for the foreseeable future.

"[Losing two players early] definitely put us in a hole right away," Carbery said. "[Losing] goaltenders is always a unique one. But you sort of feel like you can get out of that. Losing a defenseman early is tough because you go down to five so early, the second shift of the game. And then you get some guys that are taxed really early in that game, which puts us in a tough spot but not something that you can't find your way out of."

NOTES: The Capitals have been outscored 10-2 over their past two games; they also lost 5-1 at the New York Rangers on Wednesday. … Islanders forward Matt Martin had one shot on goal and played 11:32 in his first game since Nov. 15, when he sustained an upper-body injury against the Vancouver Canucks. He missed 19 games.