Oilers forward Matt Hendricks battles with Islanders defensemen Calvin De HannPerry Nelson
Matt Hendricks scored a pair of goals as the Edmonton Oilers snapped a two-game losing skid with a 5-2 victory over the visiting New York Islanders on Sunday.
Jordan Eberle, Derek Roy and Matt Fraser also scored for the Oilers (9-22-9), who won for just the third time in their past 25 games. Edmonton is, however, 2-0-2 in its last four games since interim head coach Todd Nelson took sole possession of the Oilers bench, with general manager Craig MacTavish moving back upstairs.
Johnny Boychuk and Brock Nelson replied for the Islanders (26-12-1), who saw a three-game winning streak come to an end.
The Islanders are 7-2-1 in their last 10 games.
Edmonton started the scoring with three minutes left in the first period as newly-acquired Rob Klinkhammer stole the puck from Islanders goalie Jaroslav Halak behind the net and got it to Hendricks, who looped in front and deposited it into the wide-open net. It was the first time in seven games that the Islanders allowed a first-period goal.
New York had 10 shots on Oilers starter Ben Scrivens in the opening frame, to five for Edmonton on Halak.
The Oilers made it 2-0 eight seconds into the second period as Taylor Hall made a nice cross-ice pass to an unmarked Eberle, who scored his eighth of the season stick-side on Halak.
The Islanders got one of those goals back on the power play four minutes into the middle frame as a Boychuk blast from the point cleanly beat Scrivens.
Edmonton had a great chance to regain the two-goal lead with five minutes left in the second period after a great chance for the Islanders at the other end yielded a two-on-none break for Roy and Teddy Purcell on a crease-clearing pass from Oscar Klefbom. However, the Oilers duo passed at least one too many times on the play and almost missed getting a shot on goal.
The shots were even at 19 apiece after 40 minutes.
Edmonton took a 3-1 lead two-and-a-half minutes into the third period as Islanders defender Lubomir Visnovsky lost control of a puck and sent it in front of his own net where Roy was able to snap home his first goal as an Oiler since being acquired via a trade with Nashville.
Scrivens kept the Islanders at bay with a huge glove save in tight on John Tavares midway through the third.
The Oilers put the game away with two-and-a-half minutes left as Hendricks scored his second of the game and fifth of the season from his knees into an empty net.
Just 17 seconds later, Edmonton made it 5-1 as a Fraser shot from the top of the circle dribbled into the net after Halak got a piece of it with his glove.
The Islanders were able to make the score look a little better with a power-play goal by Nelson with 30 seconds remaining– his 15th of the season.
The Oilers play the second game of a four-game homestand on Tuesday against the Detroit Red Wings. The Islanders play the fourth game of a seven-game road trip on Tuesday in Vancouver.
Notes: It was the first of two games this season between the Oilers and Islanders. New York has now lost five straight games in Edmonton, extending back to March 13, 2003 Forward Rob Klinkhammer made his debut for the Oilers after being acquired along with a 2015 first round pick from Pittsburgh for David Perron Edmonton returned 2014 third overall draft pick Leon Draisaitl to junior on Sunday. Draisaitl, 19, tallied two goals and seven assists in 37 games as a centre for the Oilers this season. Anton Lander was called up from the AHL to take his place Out for the Oilers were forward Tyler Pitlick (lacerated spleen) and defenceman Keith Aulie, who was serving the second of a two-game suspension Not dressed for the Islanders were Michael Grabner (lower body) and Matt Carkner (back). The pair are both with the Islanders on their current seven-game road trip and are skating with the team, but have yet to be activated from injured reserve.