Noah Dobson scored in the ninth round of the shootout Saturday night for the New York Islanders, who squandered two leads before outlasting the Montreal Canadiens, 4-3, in Elmont, N.Y.
Neither team scored in the first three rounds of the shootout before both swapped goals in the next two rounds. Goalies Semyon Varlamov and Cayden Primeau traded saves for three rounds, after which Dobson sent a shot under Primeau’s glove.
Varlamov then turned back Logan Mailloux to seal the win.
Bo Horvat, Kyle Palmieri and Anders Lee scored for the Islanders, who have points in four of their first five games (2-1-2). Varlamov finished with 21 saves.
Cole Caufield scored twice, including the tying goal late in the third, and Mailloux had his first NHL goal for the Canadiens, who have lost three straight (0-2-1). Primeau recorded 33 saves.
The Islanders took the lead by scoring twice in less than three minutes late in the first period.
A hooking call on Lane Hutson generated the power play that resulted in Horvat scoring with 5:28 left. Mathew Barzal sent a pass between Canadiens defenseman Mike Matheson and right winger Josh Anderson that reached Horvat, whose shot from the mid-slot sailed under Primeau’s glove.
The Islanders doubled the lead with 3:02 remaining. Maxim Tsyplakov, in the Canadiens’ zone, passed across the ice to Dobson, whose pass through the neutral zone hit Palmieri in stride. Palmieri sent a shot beyond Primeau’s stick as Alex Newhook failed to get into the shooting lane.
The Canadiens tied the score with two goals in 63 seconds, bridging the first two periods. After a faceoff win deep in the Islanders’ zone, Caufield’s shot at the goal line glanced off the stick of Ryan Pulock and caromed back to Caufield, whose second attempt beat Varlamov for a power-play goal with four seconds left.
Jake Evans picked off Palmieri’s pass intended for Brock Nelson to begin the sequence that ended with Mailloux firing a shot off the far post as Varlamov was screened by four players 59 seconds into the middle period.
The teams traded goals late in the third. Lee put back the rebound of a shot by Jean-Gabriel Pageau at the 15:24 mark. Caufield evened the score again with a shot that glanced off Varlamov’s stick arm and trickled behind him with 2:10 left.
