Islanders top Wild for third straight win

NEW YORK --Thomas Greiss made 26 saves, and the New York Islanders won their third straight game, 2-1 against the Minnesota Wild at Barclays Center on Sunday.

Anthony Beauvillier and Devon Toews scored for New York (33-16-6), which is 9-1-2 since Jan. 13 and has a five-point lead atop the Metropolitan Division for the first time since Feb. 19, 2015.
"We executed the game plan," Beauvillier said. "I think we did a lot of good things and Greiss shut the door. We had a huge commitment at the end. ... It's a big win for us."
WATCH: [All Wild vs. Islanders highlights]
The Islanders are 9-0-0 in the second game of back-to-backs; they defeated the Colorado Avalanche 4-3 in overtime here on Saturday.
"I think we've just done a good job of on those back-to-backs just staying with our game, not getting too fancy and just playing hard and getting pucks in deep and just sticking with that, and we've been successful so far," Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock said.
Mikael Granlund scored, and Devan Dubnyk made 32 saves for Minnesota (27-24-5), which has one win in its past six games (1-3-2).
"They're a good team, there's no doubt," Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said. "In the first period, I don't think we showed up. You can't win against a good team playing a period-and-a-half, and that's what we played."
Toews scored a power-play goal at 2:01 of the second on a one-timer from just outside the left circle for his fourth goal of the season to give the Islanders a 2-1 lead.
Beauvillier, who went 11 games without a goal, opened the scoring at 14:05 of the first period when he took a pass from Valtteri Filppula near the blue line and beat Dubnyk between the pads to give New York a 1-0 lead. It was Beauvillier's first goal since Jan. 12.

"In the first period, I thought we had some really good opportunities. We could've been up a couple of goals, Dubnyk played really well, made some really big saves and we didn't give up anything," Islanders coach Barry Trotz said.
Granlund tied the game at 1-1 with a power-play goal 38 seconds into the second period, his 13th of the season. He took a pass from Zach Parise in front and tapped the puck into an open net for his first in 15 games.

"They spent a lot of time in our zone. We were defending way too much especially in the first half of the game," Parise said. "It felt like they didn't even need to scrape the other end."
Greiss, who has allowed three goals on 157 shots and is 4-0-1 in his past five starts, made 12 saves in the third period.
"We just overworked those guys all night long and it was a great team effort here," Greiss said. "It's a sign of our team, how hard we battle, how hard we work, everybody is buying in. There is no superstar. Everyone is just doing their job."
The Islanders had 18 blocked shots in the game, including one by captain Anders Lee with his helmet in the final 75 seconds.
"Huge commitment at the end, guys are blocking shots with their legs, their ankles, their head, you name it, they're getting in the way," Trotz said.
Dubnyk started for the second straight day after he made 16 saves in a 4-2 win at the New Jersey Devils on Saturday.
"You've just got to understand it's playoff hockey time and every point matters," Dubnyk said. "It's going to be this way down to the wire, so just make sure I am taking care of myself and prepared to play whenever they ask me to."

They said it

"You start seeing teams creeping up ... you realize it's real, everybody is there and these are good hockey teams. When there is that many [teams] in the race, chances are at least half of them are going to win a game on any given night. -- Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk
"We've been able to keep games close and as of late we've been able to win those games, so that should give us a lot of confidence. ... For a while now, we have been playing with the right kind of mindset. They are close games and we defend really well when we need to." -- Islanders center Valtteri Filppula

Need to know

The Wild are 5-4-1 in the second half of back-to-back games this season. ... Pulock extended his point streak to three games. He has seven points (two goals, five assists) in his past five games. … Eight of New York's 18 blocked shots were in the third period. … Islanders forward Cal Clutterbuck participated in warmups but missed his second straight game because of an undisclosed injury.

What's next

Wild: Host the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; FS-N, NBCSP, NHL.TV)
Islanders: At the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; MSG-B, MSG+ 2, NHL.TV)