NEW YORK (AP) Minnesota knows it needs to play better on the road to strengthen its push for a playoff spot. The Wild also want to do a better job of holding third-period leads than they have lately.They accomplished both Monday against the New York Islanders.Matt Cullen and Tyler Ennis scored in Minnesota’s three-goal second period Scott Laughton Jersey , and the Wild beat the Islanders 5-3. Jason Zucker added two goals, Joel Eriksson Ek also scored, and Devan Dubnyk stopped 32 shots as Minnesota improved to 4-1-2 in its past seven games.Article continues below ...The Wild just lost three of five on their homestand, including twice when they gave up the tying goal in the third period before falling after regulation.”Having the lead in the second and keeping it is really good for us,” Zucker said.The win snapped Minnesota’s brief two-game skid (0-1-1) and got its three-game, five-day trip to New York off on a winning note. The Wild, who have lost seven of their past 11 on the road, play back-to-back against New Jersey and the Rangers later in the week.”Our record isn’t the way we want on the road this year, so we’ve been trying to focus on that,” Zucker said. ”It’s a big win for us.”Minnesota, which is fifth in the Central Division but holds the second wild card in the Western Conference, pulled one point behind Dallas and St. Louis.Ross Johnston Womens Sean Couturier Jersey , Anders Lee and Tanner Fritz scored for the Islanders. Jaroslav Halak finished with 27 stops.New York began the day tied with idle Carolina with 64 points, but held the second wild-card spot in the East due to more regulation/overtime wins. However, the Hurricanes now hold the tiebreaker due to a game in hand on the Islanders.Zucker beat Halak on the blocker side with a one-timer for his second of the game and 25th of the season with 3:22 remaining to push the Wild’s lead to 5-3.New York outshot Minnesota 17-9 in the third, including skating with a 6-on-4 advantage over the final 1:23 with Halak pulled on a power play but couldn’t get anything past Dubnyk.”We played a good game, we played hard,” Islanders coach Doug Weight said. ”But not good enough.”Trailing 2-1 near the midpoint of the second period, the Wild went ahead with three goals in a 4:12 span.Cullen tied it as he skated in on a breakaway and beat Halak into the top right corner for his sixth at 9:54. Zucker gave the Wild their second lead of the game with a one-timer with 7:43 remaining. Ennis made it 4-2 with his eighth with 5:54 left.Fritz pulled the Islanders within one with his first NHL goal with 3 1/2 minutes remaining in the middle period.Lee had given New York a 2-1 lead at 1:57 of the second as he tipped Thomas Hickey’s shot from the left slot out of the air and down past Dubnyk. It was Lee’s 30th of the season, tying him with John Tavares for the team lead and making him the sixth 30-goal scorer in the NHL this season.It was the same way Zucker scored against Anaheim in the Wild’s shootout loss on Saturday.”It’s a nice play, a difficult tip for that guy to make and that’s why you put pucks to the net,” Dubnyk said. ”You saw it last game for us.”The Wild got on the scoreboard first as Charlie Coyle’s rebound attempt of his own shot deflected off Eriksson Ek’s skate and in 7:02 into the game. It was Eriksson Ek’s second goal of the season, and first since opening night.”That’s hockey,” Eriksson Ek said. ”That’s how it is http://www.officialflyersproshop.com/authentic-adidas-shayne-gostisbehere-jersey , sometimes it bounces your way.”The Islanders tied it with 45 seconds left in the first as Johnston deflected Johnny Boychuk’s slap shot from the right point past Dubnyk. It was Johnson’s third goal in 10 games with New York after having three in 38 games with Bridgeport of the AHL.NOTES: Zucker has 10 goals and three assists in his past 16 games. … Ennis had his third multipoint game of the season, and first since he had two assists against Florida on Jan. 2. … The Wild swept the seasons series, also winning 6-4 at home on Oct. 26. … Eriksson Ek’s goal ended the Islanders’ shutout streak at 140:15, going back to the third period of a 4-1 loss to Columbus last Tuesday night. New York had back-to-back shutouts against the Rangers on Thursday and at Carolina on Friday. … Islanders placed G Thomas Greiss on IR, retroactive to Friday, and called up G Christopher Gibson from Bridgeport of the AHL to be Halak’s backup. … Halak has appeared in 23 of the Islanders’ past 27 games, including 22 starts. He is 9-11-3 in that stretch.UP NEXTWild: At New Jersey on Thursday night.Islanders: At Toronto on Thursday night to open a stretch of three straight road games.—Follow Vin Cherwoo at www.twitter.com/VinCherwooAP— George Parros is a busy man early in the Stanley Cup playoffs thanks to a rash of questionable hits around the NHL.The vice president of player safety’s department suspended Toronto Maple Leafs center Nazem Kadri three games for boarding Boston forward Tommy Wingels in what the league called a hit made in the name of retribution and Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty one game for an illegal check to the head on Vegas forward William Carrier.With two suspensions, two misconduct ejections for boarding that resulted in injuries, plus Capitals winger Tom Wilson’s hit to the head that knocked Columbus center Alexander Wennberg out of the game, it has been a rough start to the playoffs – and there have only been eight games played. In 1,271 regular-season games, there were a total of 37 game misconducts and 22 suspensions.The NHL has made a concerted effort to rid its game of fighting and questionable hits Travis Konecny Jersey , wanting to keep skilled players on the ice and boost scoring. In the postseason, goals are usually harder to come by and the adrenaline of the moment brings hard hits that cross the line; a year ago, Penguins star Sidney Crosby missed a game with a concussion after a cross-check to the head from the Capitals’ Matt Niskanen.Kadri was tossed from Toronto’s Game 1 loss at Boston for boarding Wingels, and Blue Jackets winger Josh Anderson was thrown out of their overtime victory at Washington for a hit from behind that injured Capitals defenseman Michal Kempny.A game misconduct will likely suffice for Anderson, but Kadri wasn’t as fortunate and will miss Games 2, 3 and 4.”I certainly wasn’t trying to hit him when he was down like that,” Kadri said after Thursday night’s game. ”Obviously, if he’s still standing up, I think there’s nothing wrong with that, but he ended up falling and reaching for the puck, and I’m not sure what happened after that.”What happened was another Bruins goal on the ensuing power play that made it 5-1 in the first game between the bitter rivals. Down the East Coast, Wilson’s hit on Wennberg allowed the Blue Jackets to tie the score in a game they won in overtime. Wilson blamed himself for costing Washington Game 1 by taking a bad penalty at a critical moment.”I’ve got to be better and maybe pass up on that hit Adam Cracknell Jersey Womens ,” Wilson said. ”We’ve got the lead there so maybe a big hit’s not needed. It’s the playoffs. Trying to finish your checks, and unfortunately I took a penalty.”Wilson was suspended two preseason games for interference and then for the first four regular-season games for boarding but had cleaned up his game since. Part of that stemmed from meeting with Parros in Calgary in the fall and educating himself on what’s acceptable and what the NHL looks for.”We had a meeting, me, him and Parros, and went over videos and just what they were looking at when he was being considered for suspensions and fines and other examples throughout the league,” Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan said.Parros spent almost a decade as an NHL enforcer and finished his career with 159 fights and 1,127 penalty minutes. When he took over the league’s player safety department last September, he said he intended to crack down on ”non-hockey plays” that have nothing to do with affecting the course of the game.Some of the hits may alter series because of the resulting injuries.Carrier, Kempny, Wennberg and Wingels are all day-to-day with ”upper-body” injuries – the customarily vague description in the NHL – with their statuses legitimately uncertain moving forward. Columbus general manager Jermo Kekalainen called Wennberg ”doubtful” for Game 2 Sunday at Washington and considered it a ”dangerous hit” by Wilson that the league deemed wasn’t worthy of further punishment.Doughty, a Norris Trophy contender and Los Angeles’ top defender, was suspended for Friday night’s Game 2 against Vegas for what the league called an avoidable hit to Carrier’s head. Kadri’s hit came after Wingels crushed Toronto forward Mitch Marner Wayne Simmonds Jersey , but the timing and force of the hit made it worse.”The bottom line is, you always have to be disciplined at all times and emotions are a part of the game, but it’s got to be controlled,” Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said.Kekalainen disagreed with officials giving Anderson a five-minute major and a game misconduct for his hit on Kempny, which was definitely a minor penalty but seemed less egregious than Wilson’s later. That didn’t stop Capitals coach Barry Trotz from voicing his displeasure with Anderson’s play.”I thought there’s clearly numbers there,” Trotz said. ”Trying to get that out of the game.”—