Islanders Wallop Panthers

    The Florida Panthers began a four-game road swing where they were handled easily by the New York Islanders 5-2 at Nassau Coliseum on Tuesday night. The Panthers attempted to be a spoiler as their chance to make the playoffs ended on Saturday.
    New York(22-16-5) scored the first three goals of the game during the first period. Matt Moulson tipped-in a shot at 8:01, Mark Streit scored on a power-play goal with a slap shot from the left point at 13:59 and Michael Grabner finished a breakaway with a goal during a power play at 16:47.
    Florida(13-23-6) made it 3-1 as Dmitry Kulikov scored his third goal of the season with 1:48 left in the first period. He converted on the power play with a wrist shot from long range.
    The Isles got two goals in a 14-second span during the second period. Streit brought the puck into the Panthers zone and fed a pass to Jesse Joenssu in the right circle. He dropped a pass to Radek Martinek where he blasted a one-time slapshot from the top right circle for a score at 3:19.
    They scored another goal quickly at 3:34 when Brian Campbell sent a blind cross-ice pass in his zone that was intercepted by Grabner in the low slot and he backhanded the puck into the net. Jacob Markstrom was pulled from net after that tally and was replaced by Scott Clemmensen.
    The Cats tried to get back in the game at 7:44. Tomas Kopecky fanned on a shot at the right of the crease, got the puck and fed Marcel Goc alone in the blue paint and he put the puck into an open net with a wrist shot. It was his sixth goal of the season.
     Markstrom made 13 saves on 18 shots in less than 24 minutes and went to 6-11-1. Clemmensen did not let up a goal as he made 13 saves. Evgeni Nabakov stopped 26 of 28 shots and got the win for the Islanders as he improved to 21-11-5. The Cats head to Madison Square Garden and face the New York Rangers on Thursday night.