SUNRISE, Fla. _ John Tavares may remember this Friday night for a while. He recorded his first hat trick in three years, crossed the 500-point plateau for his career and generally did what he normally does in leading the Islanders, this time to a 5-2 win over the Panthers.
But he and his teammates may hope it to be more memorable for the way the Isles pulled away from a Florida team that had clamped down on the Islanders two nights earlier in Brooklyn.
On Friday, the Isles scored on their first two shots of the game but looked even better over the final 40 minutes. They pumped a season-high 43 shots on Roberto Luongo and, even though the Isles didn't convert on a two-minute five on three in the second while up by a goal, they didn't sag afterwards and got a huge goal from Nick Leddy 4:36 later to extend the lead.
"It was a good response after Wednesday," said Tavares, who scored on a wicked wrist shot at 3:48 of the first for a 2-0 lead and then in close off the rush at 7:50 of the third to push the lead out to 4-2.
He capped his sixth career hat trick and first since Jan. 6, 2014 with an empty-netter at 18:16, giving him 14 goals for the season. Leddy added two assists, as did Josh Bailey, and Thomas Greiss made 26 saves as the Islanders snapped a three-game losing streak in which they scored a single goal in each defeat.
The only downer was the power play, especially that full five on three midway through the second. Seth Griffith slashed Adam Pelech behind the Islanders net and as one of the referees blew his whistle to indicate the call, Panthers defenseman Jakub Kindl cross-checked Brock Nelson in the face to induce the second minor.
On that five on three, Johnny Boychuk's blasts broke Panthers sticks on two occasions, essentially making it a five on two. But Luongo came up with four good stops and the Isles could not break through with a 2-1 lead.
"We pretty much did everything but score," Boychuk said. "There were so many great chances. We're lucky we didn't need those goals after all."
Greiss stopped four Panthers shots as the home side gained momentum from the kill, but a puck wheeled around the wall sat down for Leddy and he stepped into an unscreened slap shot that rose over Luongo's shoulder, caromed off the crossbar and in at 16:06 of the second.
The Panthers pulled within a goal just 1:42 into the third but Tavares, after a nifty off-the-wall feed from Bailey, waited out Luongo and two Florida defenders to bury the first of his two in the third.
"I had some good patience on my shots tonight," Tavares said. "I saw where I wanted to go with them and they worked out. I always want to be counted on to produce at a high level."
The Islanders went right to Raleigh after Friday's game for another matchup with an Eastern Conference team, the Hurricanes, that sits ahead of the Isles but not in a playoff spot. If this season has any meaning left these are the games the Islanders have to press for and get results.
"I liked our resiliency tonight," Jack Capuano said. "We've been working hard, it was another example of the brotherhood we have in that room and we got rewarded."
