Brandon Duhaime and Joel Eriksson Ek scored early in the first period Sunday night for the visiting Minnesota Wild, who held off a furious comeback by the New York Islanders to earn a 4-3 win in Elmont, N.Y.
Matt Boldy and Kirill Kaprizov also scored for the Wild, who won their fifth straight and improved to 8-0-1 in their last nine games despite being outshot 43-21. Goalie Kaapo Kahkonen made 40 saves.
Brock Nelson, Ross Johnston and Oliver Wahlstrom scored for the Islanders, who have lost two straight for the first time since an 11-game skid that ran through Dec. 5. Goalie Ilya Sorokin recorded 17 saves.
The Wild scored on their second and third shots of the game to take a quick 2-0 lead. Sorokin deflected Eriksson Ek's backhander from the goal line, but Duhaime swooped in and backhanded the rebound at the 3:36 mark.
A tripping penalty on Kyle Palmieri generated the power play that resulted in the Wild's next goal just 63 seconds later.
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Eriksson Ek, lingering in the right faceoff circle, appeared to want to pass across the ice to Mats Zuccarello. But with Jean-Gabriel Pageau blocking his lane to Zuccarello, Eriksson Ek turned and tucked a shot into the corner of the net.
The Islanders cut the gap in half with 6:04 left, when Robin Salo's shot was blocked by Alex Goligoski and Nelson pounced on the rebound and fired beyond Kahkonen's glove.
In the second period, Boldy helped Kevin Fiala win a puck battle with Salo behind the Islanders' net near the end of a sequence that ended with Boldy dashing in front of the net and getting a stick on Victor Rask's shot 2:39 into the period.
The Islanders pulled within one again just 1:24 later, when Duhaime stumbled near center ice and lost control of the puck to Johnston, who raced in and scored the breakaway by firing a shot past Kahkonen's stick.
The Wild took another two-goal lead on another redirect with 8:33 left in the third, when Kaprizov, battling in front of the net with Scott Mayfield, got a stick on Matt Dumba's shot.
Wahlstrom capped a three-shot sequence by the Islanders when he dove and shoved the puck into the net with four minutes remaining, but New York couldn't get the equalizer despite pulling Sorokin with a little more than two minutes left and subsequently peppering Kahkonen with five shots.
