Frans Nielsen made the play and Trent Hunter made them pay. Nielsen's hustle set up Hunter's game-winning goal just 51 seconds into overtime to give the visiting New York Islanders a 4-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Lightning goalie Olaf Kolzig mishandled the puck behind his own goal and the aggressive fore-check of Nielsen created a turnover. Nielsen sent the puck back to the slot where Trent Hunter slid it into the open net before Kolzig could recover.

"You could kind of tell the puck was going to be in an awkward spot for him (Kolzig)" Hunter said after the game. "He wasn’t sure if he could play it or not and Frans did a great job of getting in there and causing some pressure and I was able to jump to the slot and Frans made a great pass...I was happy to see it go in."

For Hunter, it was his second goal of the game and his team-leading fourth of the young season. The 28-year-old, Red Deer, Alberta, native has now scored in three straight contests.

The Islanders owned a 2-0 lead after two periods on goals by Mike Comrie and Doug Weight. Vincent Lacavalier cut the New York lead to one goal with a pretty play at the 3:43 mark of the third before a power play goal by Vaclav Prospal evened the score with just under eight minutes remaining.

Both teams took a lot of penalties with the Islanders going 1-for-9 on the power play while the Lightning finished 1-for-6.

"We shot ourselves in the foot with some turnovers," Isles' Coach Scott Gordon explained. "As a result, we never established momentum. That was unfortunate, but the way the guys responded was important."

Hunter's first goal gave the Isles back the lead with 6:09 left in regulation time and it was set up by a good play by forward Jeff Tambellini who skated down the wing and put a hard shot on net. Hunter was in position to knock home the rebound on his backhand.

The Islander lead didn't last very long as Ryan Malone evened the game at 3-3 by scoring his first goal with Tampa Bay just 1:06 after Hunter's first tally.

The frustrated Lightning are now winless in four games although they do have two points on overtime losses. "Things have not been going really great for us so far this year,” admitted Prospal. "To battle back and score three goals in the third, at least you get a point out of it."

For the Islanders, the game was an important bounce back after Monday's embarrassing 7-1 home loss to the Sabres. It was also vindication for goalie Joey MacDonald, who made 33 saves to earn the win in his fourth straight start for the Islanders after playing a shaky game on Monday.

Gordon was pleased with the play of his backup goalie. "He was able to bounce back from Monday," Gordon said. "Five-on-five we didn’t give up a lot of chances but the big thing was the power play. He had a lot of traffic in front of him, he fought his way through the screens to be able to find the puck and then when there were some point blank shots on their power play, he came up big."

The Islanders are now 2-2-0 on the season and continue their Florida road trip Saturday night against the Panthers.

NOTES

Starting goalie, Rick DiPietro dressed as the backup goalie for the fourth straight game but has yet to play this season. He had a full practice Wednesday and is expected to be ready to start very soon. Gordon would not commit to a starting goalie for Saturday night's game against Florida.

The Islanders recalled forward Mitch Fritz from Bridgeport Wednesday to take Blake Comeau's spot on the roster, but the 6' 7" forward was a healthy scratch.

Doug Weight played point on the power play for the Islanders and had three shots on goal with the man advantage.