Defensemen lift Islanders past Stars

DALLAS -- Defensemen Nick Leddy and Dennis Seidenberg scored the first two of three straight goals in the third period for the New York Islanders in a come-from-behind 5-4 win against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center on Thursday.
After Andrew Ladd scored to get New York within 3-2 at 14:49 of the second period, Leddy got a fortuitous bounce 25 seconds into the third to tie it 3-3. His shot bounced hard off the end boards and banked off goalie Antti Niemi's skate into the net.
Seidenberg gave New York a 4-3 lead at 7:46 when his point shot beat Niemi on the glove side.

WATCH: All Islanders vs. Stars highlights
"I thought we generated a lot of opportunities from our D," Islanders coach Doug Weight said. "They were getting available, they were moving across the line and I didn't notice a lot of shots getting blocked."
Nikolay Kulemin scored to make it 5-3 at 9:30.
Jamie Benn scored a shorthanded goal with 2:51 remaining to make it 5-4. It was his second goal of the game, 23rd of the season.
Ryan Strome had a goal and two assists, and Thomas Greiss made 21 saves for the Islanders (30-22-10), who are 3-1-0 on a nine-game road trip.
Tyler Seguin had two assists, and Niemi made 28 saves for Dallas (25-29-10).

"It really hurts. You watch one go in off the end wall, and you think, 'What's going to happen next?'" Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. "Still, if we defend better, we should be going into overtime. There's no excuse for the way we defended a couple of those goals."
Strome scored on a breakaway at 9:29 of the first period when he beat Niemi through the five-hole to give the Islanders a 1-0 lead.
Benn tied it 1-1 with 7.4 seconds remaining in the first when he beat Greiss with a wrist shot on the power play.
Radek Faksa gave the Stars a 2-1 lead at 7:33 of the second period when he finished off a pass from Patrick Sharp.
Jason Spezza pushed the Stars lead to 3-1 at 10:14 of the second. John Klingberg got the assist after faking a point shot and passing to Spezza.

Goal of the game

Josh Bailey passed to Strome, who held the puck to get Niemi out of position before sending a shot off the post. Ladd was at the side of the net to score on the rebound.

Save of the game

Greiss made a paddle save on Seguin at 9:21 of the first period.

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Highlight of the game

Faksa helped create the chance on his second-period goal when he avoided a hit by Scott Mayfield and slid along the boards in front of the Stars bench. "He didn't have interest to play puck, and I just tried to jump around him," Faksa said. "I was sliding and just keep sliding and I somehow landed on my feet and ended up scoring goal."

Unsung performance of the game

Defenseman Johnny Boychuk had four blocked shots and two hits in 24:25 of ice time, most on the Islanders.

They said it

"He was reliable, a couple plays here and there that you're going to nitpick because it's his first game and you're watching him. I thought he was excellent. I thought he was confident. It's a tough situation to come in on the road and we're in a playoff race right now, so I thought he was excellent and I was excited [by] what I saw." -- Islanders coach Doug Weight on forward Joshua Ho-Sang's NHL debut
"I had to use a lot of bodies penalty-killing, from Seguin to [Ales] Hemsky to Sharp. Without Roussel, with us losing another penalty-killer, I thought we got through those kills. Jamie scored a shorthanded goal, on the power play he got a goal late. It was right on the buzzer. We didn't have a lot of power-play time, but we got the job done." -- Stars coach Lindy Ruff on their performance on special teams

Need to know

Stars forward Antoine Roussel left the game with an undisclosed injury that Ruff said possibly could end his season. ... Forward Ales Hemsky returned to the Dallas lineup for the first time since Oct. 22, playing his second game of the season.

What's next

Islanders: At the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday (8:30 p.m. ET; WGN, MSG+, NHL.TV)
Stars: At the Florida Panthers on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; FS-F, FS-SW, NHL.TV)