(AP) — John Tavares narrowly missed out on his second hat trick in a week, Thomas Greiss got his second straight shutout and the New York Islanders beat the Dallas Stars 3-0 on Thursday night in their first game since firing longtime coach Jack Capuano.
New York canned Capuano in the middle of his seventh season Tuesday, replacing him on an interim basis with Doug Weight.
Tavares has seven goals in four games after scoring twice and then having an empty-net shot just deflected wide late in the third period. He had three goals last Friday at Florida.
Greiss stopped 23 shots after making 32 saves in a 4-0 win over Boston on Monday.
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John Tavares had two goals in the Islander win.
(Julie Jacobson/AP)Calvin de Haan added an empty-net goal on a coast-to-coast shot with four seconds left.
Kari Lehtonen made 33 saves for Dallas, including breakaway denials on Tavares and Shane Prince. The Stars were coming off a wild 7-6 victory over the New York Rangers on Tuesday night, but dropped to 3-12-4 in games following a victory this season.
Tavares got his 17th goal with 6:29 left in the first period. After taking a pass from Anders Lee, the All-Star slid the puck behind John Klingberg while cutting in front of the Dallas defenseman, met the puck on the other side of Klingberg and smacked it past Lehtonen for a 1-0 lead.
Tavares also scored on a short-handed breakaway with 3:06 left in the game, going to the forehand to beat Lehtonen with a low shot. Dallas entered trailing Philadelphia by one for the league lead in short-handed goals allowed.
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Weight was an assistant GM and coach with New York before his promotion this week. The last-place Islanders entered Thursday eight points shy of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, though they have games in hand on nearly the entire league.
Weight said Wednesday that he doesn’t plan to “reinvent the wheel” as interim coach, but said New York was “going to tweak some things in certain systems.”
Isles interim coach Doug Weight.
(Mike Stobe/NHLI via Getty Images)The power play is one obvious area that needs improvement, with New York entering Thursday ranked 28th in the league. The Isles had a dangerous first man-advantage Thursday, getting four shots on Lehtonen during Adam Cracknell’s hooking minor in the first period.
Weight got creative after that, with less encouraging results. New York shuffled the unit during a trio of second-period power plays, even keeping Tavares on the bench for long stretches.
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Lehtonen’s breakaway saves kept it close. He denied Tavares on a rising wrist shot in the first period, then stopped Prince’s sweeping deke with a sliding leg save.
