A one-minute, 39-second span of the first period gave the Islanders all their goals, knocked Curtis McElhinney out of the game, and ended the Ducks’ three-game winning streak all in one fell swoop.

The Islanders ended a six-game losing streak and won just their second game since Oct. 23, a span during which they are now 2-17-3. They did it on first-period goals by P.A. Parenteau (15:06), Blake Comeau (15:34) and Matt Moulson (16:45), the last of which spelled the end of Curtis McElhinney’s night.

“Being down 3-0 after 10, 15 minutes, it’s a tough hole to climb out of – doesn’t matter who you play,” Ducks winger Corey Perry said. “Those are things that we can’t let happen. Last night was a big, emotional win for us, playing Washington. We came in here and we didn’t play hockey until 15 minutes (in).”

The Ducks regrouped after intermission but could only put two goals past Rick
DiPietro.

The first, a power-play goal by Joffrey Lupul in the second period, was his second in as many days. Jason Blake made it 3-2 in the third period when he threw a backhander on DiPietro with his back turned toward the net. But the Ducks failed to convert a 6-on-5 power play for the final 55 seconds with Jonas Hiller on the bench.

The Ducks outshot the Islanders 32-29, but also missed the net on 16 occasions and had another 20 shots blocked – a similar scenario to the teams’ first meeting of the year in Anaheim, a 1-0 Ducks win. Another eye-popping stat was the Islanders’ 24 takeaways, including five by Andrew MacDonald alone.

“They blocked a lot of shots. They intercepted a lot of passes,” Perry said. “They’re a team that plays desperate. They sacrificed their bodies quite a bit.”

DiPietro made 30 saves and Hiller stopped all 17 shots he faced in relief of McElhinney, who stopped 9 of 12.

“It’s wasted points, as far as I’m concerned,” Ducks head coach Randy Carlyle said. “It’s a wasted opportunity. We had an emotional win last night in Washington … and we didn’t play 60 minutes of hockey. That’s the disappointing part.”