Tavares' 2 PP goals leads Isles past Caps 5-2

Tavares scored his 15th goal at 12:13 and his team-leading 16th — the 100th of his career — 30 seconds later, and Evgeni Nabokov made 22 saves for the Islanders. Josh Bailey, Casey Cizikas and Frans Nielsen also scored for the Islanders, who won for the third time in four games and improved to 11-11-3.

Tavares' first goal came as Washington's Mike Ribeiro was serving a four-minute penalty for high sticking and unsportsmanlike conduct. His second came with Jeff Schultz in the box — also for a double-minor — as Tavares beat Washington's Philipp Grubauer, who faced 45 shots in his first NHL start.

Mathieu Perreault and Nicklas Backstrom scored for the Capitals, who came in with eight wins in 11 games since starting the season 2-8-1 under first-year coach Adam Oates.

Bailey opened the scoring at 10:46 with his second goal of the season. Nielsen backhanded him a soft pass as Bailey skated down the left wing on a 2-on-1 break. Bailey nudged a forehand past Grubauer.

Perreault tied the game at 1:26 of the second with his power-play goal coming when the puck went off the skate of Islanders defenseman Travis Hamonic past Nabokov. The goal, originally credited to Joel Ward but changed after the game, was Perreault's fourth of the season.

Cizikas broke the tie with his third of the season at 10:03 of the second, taking a pass from Matt Martin in the right circle and firing the puck past Grubauer on the stick side. The play started after Alex Ovechkin - seeking his 700th point - turned the puck over in the neutral zone.

Ovechkin has 348 goals and 699 points - most for any NHL player in both categories - since 2005-06.

Backstrom tied the game again at 7:09 of the third when his slap shot from the left point eluded Nabokov. It was Backstrom's third goal of the season.