UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- Casey Cizikas scored the tiebreaking goal with 4:37 remaining in regulation, and the New York Islanders defeated the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 at Nassau Coliseum on Tuesday.
The Oilers dominated the third period but were unable to get the go-ahead goal past Jaroslav Halak, who finished with 34 saves. On one of the Islanders' rare forays into the Edmonton zone, Colin McDonald dove to poke the puck to Cizikas, who was all alone in the slot and one-timed a shot past Viktor Fasth for his fifth goal of the season, breaking a 2-2 tie.
McDonald and Josh Bailey also had goals for the Islanders (35-18-1), who have won three of their past four games and eight in a row against the Oilers at the Coliseum.
Ryan Hamilton and Anton Lander scored for Edmonton (15-31-9), which is 1-2-0 at the halfway point of its six-game road trip. Fasth finished with 25 saves.
After the Islanders carried the play for the first few minutes, the Oilers, owners of the League's third-worst power play, victimized the NHL's worst penalty-killing unit to take a 1-0 lead. With Anders Lee off for hooking, Hamilton, one of two injury call-ups made by the Oilers earlier in the day after Taylor Hall and Benoit Pouliot were placed on injured reserve, deflected Nail Yakupov's shot through Halak's legs at 10:17. It was the first NHL goal for Hamilton, who had played 14 NHL games during parts of the previous three seasons.
The lead lasted a little more than three minutes until McDonald scored his second goal in as many games since being recalled from the American Hockey League on Sunday. Fasth stopped Matt Martin's wide-open shot from 10 feet but was defenseless when the rebound came right to McDonald for a chip into a half-empty net.
New York forced Fasth into a number of excellent saves in the first half of the second period, and finally grabbed the lead at 11:27. John Tavares won an offensive-zone faceoff, and Lee got the puck to the left point, where defenseman Thomas Hickey took a harmless-looking wrist shot. But Bailey got a piece of it and deflected the puck high into the net for his ninth of the season.
The Oilers got even at 16:34 with another power-play goal. Lander was all alone in the slot to rifle a passout from Jordan Eberle high into the net for his second goal of the season. It came with Bailey in the penalty box for an extra two minutes after an altercation with Edmonton's Matt Hendricks.
Halak preserved the tie 2:10 into the third period when he hugged the left post and denied a stuff try by Hamilton, who was all alone in the slot. The Islanders got a break 4 ½ minutes later when Eberle picked up a rebound but hit the post to Halak's left with the goaltender out of position. The Oilers had the first eight shots on goal in the third period, before Fasth robbed Bailey on a deflection at 9:18.
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