NEW YORK (AP) β John Tavares and Nikolay Kulemin scored in the third period and the New York Islanders held on to beat the Nashville Predators 4-3 Thursday night.
Anders Lee and Kyle Okposo scored in the second period to tie the score for the Islanders after they fell behind, and Thomas Greiss finished with 44 saves. Tavares and Lee also had an assist and Mikhail Grabovski added two as New York won its second straight and improved to 2-0-1 in its new Brooklyn home.
Austin Watson, Filip Forsberg and James Neal scored for the Predators, who lost for the first time after opening the season 3-0-0. Pekka Rinne had 24 saves.
Tavares’ goal with 8:11 left in the third period gave the Islanders a 4-2 lead.
Neal pulled the Predators within one less than three minutes later, but they couldn’t get the tying goal past Greiss.
