NEW YORK _ Thomas Greiss has made a habit of beating the Hurricanes, and the Islanders have done the same with Metropolitan Division opponents.
The Islanders, with an efficient effort on 19 shots against goalie Scott Darling, won, 4-1, on Saturday night at Barclays Center for their third victory over the Hurricanes this season.
Josh Bailey had a goal and an assist for the Islanders (12-8-2) while Anders Lee and Brock Nelson each had two assists.
Greiss made 26 saves as the Hurricanes (11-9-3) were mostly kept away from the crease. He is now 8-3-1 lifetime against the Hurricanes, ending last season with a 45-save shutout against them.
Then, the Islanders opened this season with a 2-1 overtime road win against the Hurricanes as Greiss made 45 saves and he also won at Carolina, 2-1, on Oct. 28 with 38 saves.
That was part of the Islanders opening the season with seven straight divisional wins, becoming just the 11th NHL team to accomplish that. The Islanders are now 9-1-0 in the tight Metropolitan Division.
That includes their current two-game winning streak as Greiss also made 39 saves in Friday afternoon's 4-3 overtime victory at Prudential Center. It marked Greiss' first starts in back-to-back games this season. No doubt he'll be in net on Monday night when the Islanders host the Stanley Cup champion Capitals.
"To me, this is like a playoff game," said Islanders coach Barry Trotz, adding he expects the divisional race to be very close all season. "I can't remember ever so many teams so close. There's two teams that are probably a little deeper than some. Washington is one. I think Columbus is a real deep team. Then, the rest of us, we haven't separated ourselves.
"Every game is going to be a hard time," Trotz added. "If you have that mentality there's no easy games and you're ready for them and you're not getting small by the challenge, then you're going to be just fine."
The trick, actually, may be the Islanders figuring out how to play against the rest of the NHL as consistently as they do within the division.
"I think it's just a matter of when we play the way we want to play, that's when we're good and we have success," defenseman Ryan Pulock said. "We seem to bring that against the division teams. When we aren't playing our division, we have to find a way to play that same way."
The Islanders jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first period on their first two shots, including Valtteri Filppula's highlight-reel goal to make it 1-0 at 3:39. The third-line center collected the puck at his own blue line and stickhandled all the way to the Hurricanes' crease, where he buried a backhander for his sixth goal this season on 17 shots. Four of the five Hurricanes' defenders had a chance to separate him from the puck.
Anthony Beauvillier, with his fifth goal in five games, got to the crease to take Bailey's feed for a 2-0 lead at 9:01. Bailey then made it 3-0 at 13:17 of the second period, digging the puck off the right boards and getting the crease to convert Nelson's feed from behind the net.
Defenseman Adam Pelech, on a rush with Lee, pushed it to 4-0 at 8:52 of the third period before Justin Williams' power-play goal at 13:23 spoiled Greiss' shutout bid.
