Islanders top Canucks for fourth straight win

NEW YORK -- Anders Lee and John Tavares each had a goal and an assist to help the New York Islanders to a 5-2 victory against the Vancouver Canucks at Barclays Center on Tuesday.
Andrew Ladd, Calvin de Haan and Jordan Eberle scored in the first period for New York (15-7-2), which has won four in a row and remains the only team in the NHL without a regulation loss at home (8-0-2).

Jaroslav Halak made 23 saves and has won back-to-back starts. The Islanders have allowed three goals in their past two games.
\[WATCH: All Canucks vs. Islanders highlights\]
"That's a big focus on our room in general," Ladd said. "It's just more of a mindset, getting away from not trying to play on the wrong side of the puck and get caught, especially off the rush, and then trying to do too much offensively and making plays at the blue line, and stuff like that.
"It's part of the learning curve in figuring out what we need to do night in, night out to win hockey games or to give ourselves the best chance to win. We've done that in the last little while here."
Thomas Vanek and Bo Horvat scored for Vancouver (11-10-4), which is 2-2-1 on its six-game road trip that concludes against the Nashville Predators on Thursday. Anders Nilsson made 31 saves.

"They're a good team," Canucks coach Travis Green said. "They create a lot with their speed and their skill and their defense being part of the attack. I thought we had some guys that looked a little tired tonight.
Ladd gave the Islanders a 1-0 lead when he scored shorthanded at 5:23 of the first period. Seven seconds after Scott Mayfield took an elbowing penalty, Ladd skated in alone and scored on a wrist shot from between the face-off circles.
Vanek got it right back for Vancouver with a power-play goal at 6:25 when he one-timed Loui Eriksson's feed near the right goal post to make it 1-1.
New York went back in front when de Haan and Eberle scored one minute apart late in the first period. De Haan made it 2-1 at 16:42 on a slap shot from the left point before Eberle scored from the slot at 17:42 for his 400th NHL point.

Mathew Barzal assisted on Eberle's goal to extend his point streak to seven games (three goals, seven assists).
Lee gave the Islanders a 4-1 lead at 3:46 of the second period after Chris Tanev's clearing attempt went off Sven Baertschi's skate.
"We put in a few goals early," Lee said. "You get three in the first period, that set the tone kind of for the rest of the game. Kind of from there we were just in a position to just play it out for the most part."

Horvat made it 4-2 with a shorthanded goal at 6:33 when he skated around Tavares and scored with a wrist shot from the right face-off circle.
Tavares restored New York's three-goal lead at 13:35 of the third period after a pass from behind the net by Lee to make it 5-2.
"I think, for the most part, we played a really good game for 60 minutes," Halak said. "Obviously, they had a little bit of a push in the third period and more chances, but I think we did a good job of staying with the third man high and not giving them any odd-man rushes."

Goal of the game

Ladd's shorthanded goal at 5:23 of the first period.

Save of the game

Halak's glove save against Michael Del Zotto at 4:33 of the third period.

Highlight of the game

Eberle's 10th goal of the season at 17:42 of the first period.

They said it

"We've got to get back to how we were playing earlier; frustrating teams, not turning into a track meet where you're trading chances with teams like that. We need 20 guys, we need everybody contributing."-- Canucks forward Bo Horvat
"We've gotten rid of some of the circling we've been doing early in the year. We've just got to keep on it and just keep getting better by percentage points. If it takes a week, if it takes two weeks, just keep getting better and more trust in each other and our systems and how we play. I think we can get better and better as a team."-- Islanders coach Doug Weight

Need to know

Canucks forward Daniel Sedin was held without a point and remains two away from 1,000 in his NHL career. … Eriksson has seven points (three goals, four assists) in his past six games. … New York is 26-4-5 all-time against Western Conference opponents at Barclays Center. … Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech had two assists. … Barzal is the first Islanders rookie to have at least one point in seven consecutive games since Kyle Okposo from March 7-21, 2009 (eight games). … The Islanders have allowed eight shorthanded goals this season.

What's next

Canucks: At the Nashville Predators on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; SNE, SNO, SNP, FS-TN, NHL.TV)
Islanders: Host the Ottawa Senators on Friday (7 p.m. ET; MSG+, TSN5, RDS, NHL.TV)