Isles score 3 in 1st, coast to win over Lightning

UNIONDALE, N.Y. – Matt Martin scored his second game-winning goal in his three-year NHL career, and the New York Islanders shook off a slow start and routed the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-1 on Tuesday night.

John Tavares, Milan Jurcina, David Ullstrom and Matt Moulson — the NHL's first star of last week — also scored for New York. Ullstrom's goal was his first in the NHL. Al Montoya made 23 saves.

The Islanders are 4-1-2 in their past seven games.

Martin St. Louis gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead, but the Islanders led 3-1 before the first period ended. Mathieu Garon stopped 29 saves.

Tampa Bay, which has lost five in a row, leads the Islanders by only one point for 13th place in the Eastern Conference.

The Islanders have outscored opponents 19-13 the past six games.

Tampa Bay took a 1-0 lead on its first shot when St. Louis tipped Brett Clark's point drive past Montoya 6:55 in for his ninth goal this season.

New York then took control of the game.

Tavares tied it with a wrist shot from the right circle at 14:01. Tavares split two defenders before he ripped in his ninth goal.

Martin slammed Tim Wallace's feed from behind the net under Garon to give New York a 2-1 lead with 1:34 left in the first. That turned out to be the game-winning goal. Martin's other winner was scored against the Lightning last season. Wallace earned his first NHL assist.

Jurcina concluded the outburst by finishing a passing sequence that included Frans Nielsen and Mark Streit, tapping a shot past Garon with 5.5 seconds left in the period.

Garon kept the Lightning in the game as he helped kill three straight Islanders power plays in the second period, but Tampa Bay couldn't muster any more offense.

Ullstrom pushed the lead to 4-1 when he drove to the net and shoved Josh Bailey's pass under Garon 3:19 into the third.

Moulson's power play goal at 17:25 was his 14th of the season. Moulson has scored in five straight games, including a four-goal performance Saturday night in New York's 5-4 win at Dallas.

New York was 2-for-5 on the power play and killed all three Tampa Bay advantages.

NOTES: The Islanders have scored at least four goals in three straight games. It is their longest such streak since a four-game stretch from March 13-19, 2010. . Tampa Bay promoted D Evan Oberg from AHL Norfolk on Monday, but he wasn't in the lineup. ... The announced attendance was 9,486.