UNIONDALE, N.Y. – Miroslav Satan finally scored his first goal in an Islanders jersey and Rick DiPietro made 42 saves, sending New York to a 3-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes.

It wasn’t the most glamorous of goals for Satan, who scored 259 before signing with the Islanders in the offseason. In fact, it was Carolina defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky who knocked it past goalie Cam Ward.

Satan was scoreless since joining the Islanders, blanked in seven preseason games and through most of the first two real ones. His luck changed when he flung a shot toward the net from the right boards.

Ward deflected it up with a skate save, and Tverdovsky tried to clear it with two swipes of his stick. But the second smack put the puck in and gave New York a 2-1 lead 5:39 into the third period.

The advantage grew just 1:27 later when Shawn Bates single-handedly created a short-handed goal. He knocked the puck away in the Islanders zone and brought it up the ice. He deked center Matt Cullen off his skates and scored into an upper corner.

Eric Staal scored twice for Carolina, including a goal with 1:01 remaining that made it 3-2. He has four on the season and has scored in all three Hurricanes games.

But DiPietro kept New York in it throughout, falling three saves short of his career high.

Carolina was 0-for-3 on the power play in the first period and 0-for-5 in the game. The Hurricanes have failed on all 15 power plays this season and have a short-handed goal against.

Ward made 32 saves in his second NHL start in two nights. He won his debut in stellar fashion, stopping Pittsburgh’s Ziggy Palffy, Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby in a shootout victory Friday.

For the second straight game, DiPietro’s teammates didn’t give him much help in front. In the first period, DiPietro made 16 saves after the Islanders committed nine turnovers. But only Staal took advantage, giving the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead at 7:15.

The Islanders broke through during a second-period power play.

Brent Sopel’s shot from the point was stopped but he couldn’t get to the rebound before Jason Blake knocked it in with 6:59 left in the second. Blake, who also had a goal in New York’s season-opening 6-4 loss Wednesday at Buffalo, jumped face first into the glass to celebrate with fans.

The Islanders played a much better second period than the first but had nothing to show for it until Blake scored. New York had gone 185 minutes, 56 seconds without a goal on home ice.

The Islanders failed to score in the third period and overtime of their regular-season finale in 2004 and were blanked 3-0 in both games at Nassau Coliseum during their first-round playoff loss to Tampa Bay.

New York was reeling from a double dose of frustration minutes before Blake scored.

Mark Parrish deflected a shot from the slot ring off the crossbar, and Sopel’s apparent goal was waved off because Parrish interfered with Ward.

The Islanders came out strong in the opening few minutes and seemed to feed off the energy and excitement of the sellout crowd on opening night that was cheering for them 45 minutes before the first faceoff.

Notes: Islanders RW Arron Asham made his season debut after sitting out the opener with a rib injury. … Carolina LW Erik Cole was in the lineup despite taking a cross-check in the side Friday night that kept him out for most of the third period against Pittsburgh.

AP-ES-10-08-05 2146EDT

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