NEW YORK – Nate Thompson scored a short-handed goal to break a scoreless deadlock in the third period, and goalie Joey MacDonald held on after a barrage of shots in the New York Islanders’ 2-1 victory over the New York Rangers on Tuesday night.

Just 4:42 after Thompson scored, during a different Rangers power play, Richard Park also netted a short-handed tally – the Islanders’ league-leading sixth – to make it 2-0. The Islanders got out of a frustrated Madison Square Garden with their best win of the season despite being outshot 36-19.

Thompson’s goal was his first NHL point and it gave the Islanders a two-game winning streak following six straight losses (0-5-1), and moved them out of last-place in the league standings (4-7-1).

Senators 2, Capitals 1

OTTAWA – Mike Fisher scored his first goal of the season with just under 40 seconds left in overtime to give the Ottawa Senators a 2-1 win over the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night. Fisher took Daniel Alfredsson’s pass and shot past Brent Johnson into an open left side with 39.9 seconds remaining in the extra period.

Hurricanes 5, Leafs 4

TORONTO – Niclas Wallin scored 1:52 into overtime as Carolina Hurricanes blew a three-goal lead before pulling out a 5-4 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night. Tuomo Ruutu, Dennis Seidenberg, Chad LaRose and Ryan Bayda also had goals for Carolina (7-3-2).

Mikhail Grabovski had two goals and Niklas Hagman and Mike Van Ryn also scored for the Maple Leafs (5-4-4).

NBA

Suns 114, Nets 86

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Raja Bell hit all six of his 3-pointers and scored 22 points, and the Phoenix Suns shot 63 percent from the field in beating the New Jersey Nets 114-86 on Tuesday night.

Steve Nash added 12 points and 11 assists, Shaquille O’Neal had 18 points and six rebounds and Amare Stoudemire added 14 points as the Suns won for the third time in four games.

Vince Carter had 19 points and Yi Jianlian added 15 and eight rebounds for the Nets, who lost their second straight game.

Mavericks 98, Spurs 81

SAN ANTONIO – Dirk Nowitzki scored 30 points, Jason Terry added 29 in his first start of the season and the Dallas Mavericks beat San Antonio 98-81 on Tuesday night to send the Spurs to their first 0-3 record in 35 years.

Dallas (2-2) also got 14 points from Josh Howard. The Mavericks shot 53 from the floor compared to 42 for San Antonio. Dallas outrebounded San Antonio 48-38.

Phoenix never trailed, scoring the first seven points with Bell and Matt Barnes each hitting 3-pointers.

New Jersey, which trailed by 11 points in the opening minutes, got within three points late in the first quarter before Grant Hill pushed the lead to five with a short runner.

The second quarter followed the same script with Boris Diaw and Nash hitting a short shot and layup, respectively, in the final minute to give Phoenix a 65-55 lead.

The Suns blew the game open in the third quarter as O’Neal, who was 7-of-9 from the field, scored 10 points, while Nash added seven points, three assists and two rebounds to push the lead to 92-77. Bell, who was 7-of-9 from the field, hit his final three 3-pointers in the quarter.

The game was also the first pro matchup between the Lopez twins – Brook of the Nets and Robin of the Suns. Both finished with two points, combining for 2-of-10 shooting from the field.

Notes: Nets F Sean Williams made his season debut in the second quarter and scored 16 seconds later. … Suns swingman Alando Tucker had successful arthroscopic knee surgery. He will be sidelined about four weeks.

AP-ES-11-04-08 2215EST