ST. PAUL, Minn. _ The Islanders had to play well defensively. The Wild controlled much of the five-on-five play and some questionable calls left the Islanders on the penalty kill six times.
But that defensive effort keyed a 3-2 overtime win on Sunday at Xcel Energy Center as the Islanders pulled even with the Capitals for first place in the Metropolitan Division with 91 points each.
Brock Nelson, taking a feed from Mathew Barzal, scored the winner at 1:04 of the extra period.
The Islanders (42-23-7) blocked 22 shots and got 32 saves from Thomas Greiss.
The Wild (34-30-9) went 2 for 6 on the power play and Alex Stalock made 17 saves.
Both teams were playing on back-to-back days after the Islanders lost 2-1 at Detroit on Saturday afternoon and the Wild beat the Rangers, 5-2, on Saturday night.
It was a third straight strong defensive performance for the Islanders.
"We're in a results business but if you're playing OK or well, you know you'll continue down that path and get the results you need," Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. "If you're not playing well, you're just hoping for results. We don't want to hope for results. We want to play well so we can get results."
Trotz elected to stick with Greiss after he made 20 saves on Saturday. It marked just the second time Trotz has started a goalie in back-to-back games and the first since Greiss played in both a 4-3 overtime win at New Jersey on Nov. 23 and a 4-1 win over the Hurricanes at Barclays Center the next night.
Nelson's interference call against defenseman Jonas Brodin led to defenseman Jared Spurgeon's power-play goal off a rebound at the left post as the Wild tied the score at 2 at 7:15 of the third period.
The Islanders were outshot 16-3 in the second period with the Wild getting two additional power plays and tying the score at 1 on Zach Parise's between the legs shot at the crease on the man advantage at 11:11 after Greiss was called for slashing Eric Staal as he circled the crease.
The Wild thought they had tied the game on a delayed call after captain Anders Lee was called for goalie interference but Trotz successfully challenged that Ryan Donato interfered with Greiss by using his stick to push the goalie's pad into the net at 4:57
Lee's power-play goal at 16:12 as he deflected rookie defenseman Devon Toews' blue-line shot regained a one-goal lead for the Islanders. It also marked their first power-play goal in 12 games as they were 0 for 25 in that span.
Lee extended his goal streak to four games. And Nelson, before scoring the winner, set a career high with his 46th point as he notched the secondary assist.
The Islanders set the tone defensively early in the first period, in part because they had to kill off three power plays in the first 20 minutes, including two in the first 8:55 as Matt Martin held Brodin at 3:00 and Andrew Ladd took a bad slashing penalty as he broke defenseman Ryan Suter's stick in the neutral zone.
Spurgeon's shot at 6:25 was the first of the game and the Islanders took a 1-0 lead at 9:28 on their first shot as Jordan Eberle scored his first goal in 18 games. He also became the first Islanders' forward other than Lee with a goal in six games.
Naturally, the play started with a defensive effort as Barzal stripped Jordan Greenway of the puck in the Wild's zone and fed the puck cross-ice to Eberle cutting to the right post.
The Islanders blocked 11 shots in the first period.
