NEW YORK _ The Islanders saw firsthand why the expansion Vegas Golden Knights are off to such a crazy start, getting outskated by the first-year team in the opening period.
But the Islanders are forging an identity, too. They have scored as well as anyone in the league through a dozen games and they buried Vegas over the final 40 minutes, a 6-3 win Monday night at Barclays Center that marked the sixth straight game the Isles have scored at least three goals.
They've won five of those to go to 7-4-1 on the season. The Islanders didn't win their seventh game until Nov. 28 a year ago, when they were already 6-10-4 and in the Eastern Conference basement.
"It's just good to see there's no panic in the room," Andrew Ladd said. "We had a couple rough ones early and tonight they were working hard, skating well and we were kind of standing still. But we're a confident team, that's what good teams do."
John Tavares scored the first of his two goals on the power play at 14:50 of the second to tie the score at 2. At the same time, Vegas goaltender Oscar Dansk left the ice with an apparent upper-body injury, the third Knights goaltender to be hurt already during their magical 8-2-0 start.
Maxime Lagace, an undrafted 24-year-old who never had played in the NHL, was pressed into service. The Islanders greeted him rudely.
Again on the power play, Anders Lee swept one off the post and the puck went right to Mathew Barzal, who netted his third of the year at 17:44. That gave the Islanders five power-play goals in two games after only two in their first 10.
It also helped make up for allowing yet another short-handed goal, the sixth the Isles have surrendered, to William Karlson at 9:31 of the first to open the scoring.
"We obviously gave up another (short-handed goal) and that's too many to start the year," Tavares said. "But we had a big response in the second."
In the third, the Islanders counterattacked well against the very aggressive Knights. Cal Clutterbuck snapped one over Lagace at 4:44 off the rush and Nikolay Kulemin and Tavares scored on breakaways to salt this one away and put Tavares second in the league with 11 goals in 12 games, including eight in his last four. Josh Bailey had three assists for the second time in three games and is among the league leaders with 11 assists.
"When your best player has that confidence it filters throughout the room," Ladd said. "(Vegas) is a good team, they just play hard and they're always moving. But we didn't give in to the ups and downs early on."
Jaroslav Halak made 31 saves in winning his fourth consecutive start. Doug Weight worried about the slow start, something that has lingered from the first week of the season _ "when we have a bad shift, I'm concerned," he said _ but he can see not only his top players raising their level but some of the supporting cast as well.
"I thought Josh was our best player tonight, he's been doing that for a few games now," Weight said. "I thought (Casey Cizikas), Kulie and Clutter calmed us down, as they do, and they got rewarded. It's a good start. You always feel you left some (points) out there and I just hope we're learning. Even in the third tonight, we started feeling good about ourselves and got a little away from things. But we're learning and hopefully getting better every game."
