Uniondale, NY (SportsNetwork.com) – Frans Nielsen’s third-period hat trick
helped the New York Islanders to a 7-5 win over the Dallas Stars on Saturday.
With the game tied at 4-4 after two periods, Nielsen started his surge as he
finished a 2-on-1 rush with a goal at the 9:39 mark. He then received a
pass from Mikhail Grabovski on another 2-on-1 break and wristed the puck past
Lindback for a 6-4 lead 5 1/2 minutes later.
Shawn Horcoff cut the deficit in half when he beat Jaroslav Halak only 23
seconds after Nielsen’s second tally but the native of Denmark capped the
night on an empty netter with one-tenth of a second left.
Anders Lee, Nikolay Kulemin, Brock Nelson and Lubomir Visnovsky each added a
goal for New York, which has won two straight on the heels of a two-game skid.
Halak made 26 saves in the win for the Metropolitan Division leaders.
