Red Wings gain distance on Islanders with 6-3 win

Dylan Larkin and Andrew Copp each scored two goals to lead the Detroit Red Wings to a 6-3 home win over the New York Islanders on Thursday.

Christian Fischer added a goal and two assists for Detroit (36-28-6, 78 points), which moved five points ahead of the Islanders (29-25-15, 73 points) in the hunt for a Wild Card berth in the Eastern Conference.

The Islanders have lost six straight.

With the game tied at 1-1 in the second period, Detroit scored four straight goals to take a 5-1 lead early in the third period.

Copp made it 2-1 Detroit with 4:00 left in the second when he banged home a rebound into an open net, and then Larkin gave Detroit a 3-1 lead with 1:52 left in the second when he took a pass from Alex DeBrincat in between the face-off circles and rifled a shot past Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin.

With 14:48 remaining in the game, Copp gave the Red Wings a 4-1 lead when he pounced on a loose puck to the right of Sorokin and fired it in.

Patrick Kane then put Detroit up 5-1 with 13:38 left when he took a pass from DeBrincat on a 2-on-1 and shot the puck into an open goal.

The Islanders cut Detroit's lead to 5-2 on a goal by Jean-Gabriel Pageau with 10:26 left and then made it 5-3 with 8:40 remaining on a goal by Matthew Barzal.

But Larkin essentially iced the game when he scored his second with 3:45 remaining to make it 6-3 Detroit.

After a scoreless first period, Detroit opened the scoring with 8:45 left in the second when Fischer skated in all alone on the New York goal and beat Sorokin between the legs to make it 1-0 Red Wings.

The Islanders answered 2:10 later, tying the game at 1-1 when Mike Reilly fired an innocent looking shot from the blue line that trickled through the pads of Detroit goalie James Reimer with 6:35 remaining in the second.