Paul Byron and Noah Juulsen scored fewer than two minutes apart shortly before the midway point of the third period Friday night for the visiting Montreal Canadiens, who went on to beat the reeling New York Islanders 6-3 at Barclays Center.

Alex Galchenyuk, playing in his 400th NHL game, collected his second hat trick for the Canadiens, who beat the Islanders for the second time in three nights. Brendan Gallagher also scored for Montreal, which has collected a point in six straight games (3-0-3). Goalie Charlie Lindgren recorded 32 saves.

Tanner Fritz, Josh Bailey and Brock Nelson scored for the Islanders, whose playoff hopes have diminished dramatically during a five-game losing streak (0-4-1). Goalie Jaroslav Halak made 19 saves.

The Canadiens went ahead just 88 seconds into the game, when Gallagher got a stick on Galchenyuk's shot from the blue line and redirected the puck past Halak. Montreal hung onto the lead until Fritz emerged from a gaggle of players for a loose puck near center ice and exchanged the puck with Nelson before beating Lindgren with 5.8 seconds left in the opening period.

Galchenyuk scored his first goal in 15 games and put the Canadiens back up 2:17 into the second, when he fired the rebound of a David Schlemko shot into the empty left side of the net.

Bailey scored on a breakaway at the 4:23 mark of the middle period, but the Canadiens again regained the lead six minutes later. Galchenyuk went to one knee in the middle of the left faceoff circle and fired a sizzling shot past Halak at 10:31.

The Islanders again answered in the waning seconds of the second, when Anthony Beauvillier's pass to Nelson in front of the net ticked off Nelson's stick and sailed into the net with 3.3 seconds left.

Byron scored 8:10 into the third and Juulsen scored his first NHL goal 1:43 later before Galchenyuk scored an empty-netter in the final minute.

--Field Level Media