NEW YORK _ A lightly-tested Keith Kinkaid was the unexpected beneficiary of the Devils' first win of the new year, meaning the Long Island native finally beat his local team.
The Devils, scoring three times in the second period, snapped a season-high six-game winless streak with a 4-1 victory over the Islanders at Barclays Center on Tuesday night.
And the Devils finally won because they finally had a consistent, 60-minute effort without any third-period lapses.
"Our willingness to play a certain way has to be at a high level," Devils coach John Hynes said. "It has to be a 60-minute effort for us."
Kinkaid, who until about noon thought he would be backing up Cory Schneider, stopped 25 shots as the Devils (23-12-8) snapped an 0-3-3 skid and leap-frogged back over the Blue Jackets for second place in the Metropolitan Division. The Devils, with two games in hand, are five points behind the first-place Capitals, who they play on Thursday night at Prudential Center.
The Devils, getting two goals from defenseman Damon Severson and two assists from rookie Jesper Bratt, had not won since a 3-1 victory over the visiting Red Wings on Dec. 27. Kinkaid, from Farmingville, N.Y., came into the game with a career 0-3-2 record against the Islanders with a 3.19 goals-against average and an .892 save percentage.
The Islanders (23-19-4), who won, 5-4, in overtime at Montreal on Monday night, were playing their third game in four nights and were missing Josh Bailey, Casey Cizikas, Andrew Ladd and defenseman Johnny Boychuk among a significant list of injured players.
Jaroslav Halak made 38 saves for the Islanders, who had their three-game winning streak snapped.
Schneider, who, a day earlier, had said, "I know I need to be better and step up and make some more saves for my guys," as he's allowed at least four goals in his last five starts, was a late scratch because of illness.
The Devils recalled 22-year-old Ken Appleby from Binghamton (AHL) to back up Schneider while re-assigning 22-year-old defenseman Steven Santini, who was going to be a healthy scratch for the second straight game.
It marked just Kinkaid's third start since Dec. 9. In his previous start, he had stopped 27 shots in a 3-2 shootout loss at St. Louis on Jan. 2.
The Devils lost a 5-4, five-round shootout to the Islanders at Barclays Center on Jan. 7 as they were unable to hold a 4-2 lead in the third period. Halak made 42 saves in that game.
The Devils' second-period goal barrage started shortly after the Islanders' killed off Mathew Barzal's hook on Taylor Hall and Halak had robbed Brian Boyle at the left post. Severson knocked down Brian Gibbons' feed to the right circle with his glove and fired a slap shot past Halak to make it 2-1 at 12:58.
Severson's blue-line one-timer off Ben Lovejoy's feed then made it 3-1 at 14:24.
Finally, Hall, extending his point streak to five games _ with five goals and four assists in that span _ kept the puck on a two-on-one rush with Nico Hischier for a 4-1 lead at 18:20.
Anders Lee scored on the first shot Kinkaid faced, blocking John Moore's shot at the Islanders' blue line and going in for a breakaway after the defensemen fell in the neutral zone for a 1-0 lead at 1:39 of the first period.
Kyle Palmieri's power-play one-timer from the top of the left circle off Sami Vatanen's feed tied the game at 1 at 15:20 of the first period.
The first period ended with Devils captain Andy Greene dropping the gloves with Brock Nelson in front of the Devils' crease. It was the first career fighting majors for both.
