ELMONT, N.Y. — The Wild won't start the second half of their season trying to shake off a losing streak.
They ditched a three-game slide at the midway point, rallying, 3-1, against the Islanders on Thursday at UBS Arena to sit 23-14-4 through 41 games.
A tic-tac-toe play by the top line after forcing a turnover sparked the go-ahead goal by Sam Steel at 12 minutes, 28 seconds of the third period after Frederick Gaudreau's short-handed goal earlier in the period at 10:55.
Kirill Kaprizov tacked on an empty-net goal with 1:13 remaining in regulation, his team-leading 25th.
New York goaltender Ilya Sorokin finished with 33 saves; at the other end, Filip Gustavsson made 19 stops.
The only puck that eluded Gustavsson was a shot by Scott Mayfield at 16 minutes, 49 seconds into the first period, a puck that bounced off the ice before flying between Gustavsson's arm and his body.
Before Gaudreau's equalizer, the Wild had plenty of chances to not only erase that deficit but move ahead of the Islanders. They went to the power play five times but failed to capitalize.
That last look came in the third period after the Wild began to apply more pressure around New York's net but once again, they struggled to catch the Islanders off-guard and managed just a single shot.
What foiled the Wild was a microcosm of their 5-on-5 play, too, and that's the lack of straightforward, no-nonsense hockey.
Instead, plays wilted on their sticks, and they had all seven shots with the man advantage kept out of the net. This was the third consecutive game the Wild were unsuccessful on the power play; they're 0 for 9 during that span. That's the power play's longest rut since a five-game drought Nov. 11-19 when they went 0 for 14.
As for New York, the Islanders were 0 for 3.
Their last power play actually let to the game-tying goal, a 2-on-1 look that saw Joel Eriksson Ek set up Gaudreau for a shot that disappeared into Sorokin's glove. Video review later determined that Sorokin's glove was in the net, a much-needed tally for the Wild and their seventh short-handed goal of the season, which is tied for the second most in the NHL. The goal was Gaudreau's 10th of the season; he set a career high last season when he registered 14.
Two shifts later and only 1:33 later, Kaprizov fed a New York turnover to Mats Zuccarello, who then handed off to Steel for a shot in tight that evaded Sorokin.
The goal, Steel's eighth of the season, was his 13th point in his last 13 games.
Kaprizov's assist was his 50th point of the season, and he joined Brian Rolston and Eric Staal as only the third Wild player to post at least three straight 50-point seasons from the start of their tenure with the Wild.
Overall, Kaprizov has 38 points over his last 29 games and is only one goal shy of 100 in his NHL career; Zuccarello, who scored a goal on Tuesday in his first game back after missing two with an upper-body injury, is up to 25 points in his past 21 appearances.
Next up for the Wild is Game No. 42 on Saturday at Xcel Energy Center, a Central Division battle with the Coyotes.
