Islanders’ winning streak comes to an end

Justin Williams scored late in the third period and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Islanders 4-3 on Tuesday night at the Nassau Coliseum to snap New York’s six-game winning streak.

Williams scored his 10th goal of the season 15 seconds after leaving the penalty box to make it 3-2 with 17:18 left. The 37-year-old flipped a backhand past goaltender Thomas Greiss with an assist from Greg McKegg. It was his 299th career goal.

“I was hoping they would kill off the penalty and they did. Then I got a great pass, the top side opened up and it turns out to be the game-winning goal,” Williams said. “That team makes you earn everything. We got it done.”

Jaccob Slavin made it 4-2 with a power-play goal at 18:53 before Brock Nelson scored his second of the game for the Islanders at 19:01.

The Hurricanes held on to win their fifth straight. Curtis McElhinney made 28 saves for Carolina, which also got goals from Saku Maenalanen and McKegg.

The Islanders were coming off a three-goal comeback win over St. Louis on Saturday following an overtime home win over Chicago last Thursday. The loss left their coach Barry Trotz frustrated about his team’s lack of execution.

Trotz was perturbed the Islanders gave up McKegg’s goal with only six seconds left in the first as well as Williams’ tally on a broken play in the Islanders’ zone.

“I thought we just mismanaged the game,” Trotz said. “There are certain moments where you have to execute what is in the best interest of the group. We didn’t do that. That’s a good way to lose hockey games. That one or two points we could have had, we just threw them away.”

Rookie defenseman Devon Toews tied it early in the third period for New York. It was his second goal since being recalled from AHL Bridgeport.

Nelson opened the scoring 13:42 into the first period, but Carolina tied it when rookie Maenalanen scored his first goal at 15:10. The 24-year-old Maenalanen played his fifth career game after signing with Carolina last May as a free agent. He previously played for Karpat of the Finnish League.

McKegg put the Hurricanes ahead with six seconds left in the first, knocking a loose puck past Greiss in the crease for his second goal of the season.

“I just tried to get to the net. It was a lucky bounce and it ended up going in,” McKegg said.

Jordan Eberle appeared to tie it for the Islanders early in the second period, but Valterri Filppula was ruled offside before the goal.

McElhinney also made a sprawling save on Ryan Pulock alone in the slot in the waning seconds of the middle period.

Lee echoed his coach regarding the missed opportunity to snare at least a point. The Islanders will try to make amends with an upcoming home-and-home series against the Rangers starting on Thursday.

“We should have played better and smarter,” Lee said. “We have to reset and get ready to go in a couple of days.”