Sunrise, FL – Casey Cizikas scored the winner with 7:05 to play as the New York Islanders held off the Florida Panthers, 4-3, on Saturday.
Radek Martinek, Kyle Okposo and Brad Boyes all scored while Evgeni Nabokov made 27 stops for the Islanders, who have won their past two.
Mike Santorelli, T.J. Brennan and Marcel Goc scored in the third period for the Panthers, who are on a six-game slide. Scott Clemmensen gave up all four goals on 25 shots.
"We threw a lot of energy out there and got some production," said Florida head coach Kevin Dineen. "But we have to play a more complete game and stop this one-period stuff we've been doing a lot of lately."
Florida had scored three times in the third period to tie the game, but the Islanders went back on top with 7:05 to play in the game.
Keith Aucoin left the puck along the boards to the left of the net for Cizikas, who then pushed it further along to Colin McDonald, who then sent it back to Cizikas and he caught Clemmensen looking the other way for his fourth goal of the season.
"We were just working the puck deep and I was able to get into a position to get it on net," said Cizikas. "We certainly don't want to blow leads like that every night because it's not a way to build success, but it's nice that we got the win."
The Panthers skated the final 90 seconds with an extra player after pulling Clemmensen, but were unable to net the equalizer.
The Islanders took a 1-0 lead at the 15:26 mark of the first period when Frans Nielsen's pass from behind the right side of the net to the front was one- timed home by Okposo.
About 2 1/2 minutes later it was a 2-0 game as Martinek's one-timer from the high slot went through traffic for his second goal of the year.
The Islanders made it a 3-0 game 33 seconds into the second period as Boyes' shot from the right side went off the skate of Tomas Kopecky and snuck in.
It stayed 3-0 until a furious rally from the Panthers that saw the team score three times in a span of 1:43 to tie the game.
The first goal came at the 5:09 mark when Brennan was able to jam the puck in during a scrum in front, and 34 seconds later it was a one-goal game when Goc scored his third of the year.
Florida capped the comeback at the 6:52 mark as Jack Skille flew in the zone down the left wing and had his first shot stopped, but got the rebound and centered it where Santorelli tapped it in to tie the game.
Game Notes
The Panthers lost in regulation against the Islanders for the first time since Nov. 18, 2006, going 9-0-2 until Saturday ... Florida hits the road for its next five games starting in Carolina on Tuesday ... The Islanders, who went 2-1-0 on a three-game road trip, return home to face Ottawa on Tuesday ... Florida went 0-for-1 on the power play while New York didn't have an advantage during the game.
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