Salvador snaps tie in 3rd period, gives Devils 4-2 win over Islanders

Salvador’s late goal lifts Devils over Islanders

UNIONDALE, N.Y. — Bryce Salvador scored his third goal of the season with 6:49 remaining to lift the New Jersey Devils to a 4-2 win over the New York Islanders on Saturday night.

Zach Parise scored twice and Jamie Langenbrunner tallied his first goal in three weeks to help New Jersey end a three-game road losing streak.

Kyle Okposo and Jack Hillen added power play goals for the Islanders, whose six-game home winning streak was snapped.

Martin Brodeur, pulled after allowing four goals in two periods against the Islanders on Monday, lasted the entire game in the rematch and posted 20 saves in his 29th consecutive start.

Salvador’s left-point shot off a faceoff beat screened goalie Rick DiPietro as the Devils won for just the second time in six games. Rob Niedermayer won the draw cleanly to set up the defenseman’s first goal since Dec. 18.

Travis Zajac assisted on the Devils’ first two goals and Parise scored an empty-netter with 45.1 seconds left. New Jersey entered with just eight goals in 12 games before cracking the four-goal plateau for the first time in nine games.

After Langenbrunner opened the scoring, New York turned Colin White’s major boarding penalty into power-play goals by Okposo and Hillen almost two minutes apart in the second period.

White drove Sean Bergenheim hard into the penalty box-side boards, resulting in a game misconduct at 9:15. The bloodied Bergenheim skated to the dressing room and then returned in the final period.

Okposo jump-started the Islanders’ offense 19 seconds after White’s penalty, scoring the tying goal by beating Brodeur low glove side from just outside the right circle.

Hillen’s high-slot slap shot 2:02 later put the Islanders ahead 2-1. The defenseman netted his first goal since Nov. 7 after his shot hit the post before crashing off Salvador and into the net.

New Jersey was held without a shot in the second period before Parise pushed in Zajac’s one-timer from the right post with 32 seconds left. The rare power-play strike for the Devils tied the game despite the Islanders owning a 14-1 edge in shots during the period.

Parise, who added his team-leading 23rd goal in the last minute, marked the Devils’ first power play goal in nine games — ending an 0 for 23 drought.

The last time he faced the Devils on Monday, DiPietro recorded his first shutout in nearly two years. But Langenbrunner fired in a low-right circle one-timer to end a repeat bid just 5:52 into the game.

Zajac helped set up the goal with a crisp behind-the-net pass to the open Devils captain. Langenbrunner capitalized for his first goal in 10 games.

NOTES: Devils winger Jay Pandolfo appeared in his 800th NHL game, all with the organization that drafted him in 1993. … Langenbrunner hadn’t scored since posting a hat trick against Minnesota on Jan. 2. … New York banged three shots off the post before scoring against Brodeur. … Hillen ended a 34-game goal drought. … The Islanders announced their third sellout, including the second this week against New Jersey.