Islanders 3, Golden Knights 2 (OT)

In a physical game with a playoff pace, Ryan Pulock and the New York Islanders took advantage of a prime opportunity in overtime.

Pulock scored a power-play goal 3:20 into the extra session to give the Islanders a victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night.

“It was probably one of the faster games we played this year,’’ Pulock said. “That’s a good team over there. It’s huge to get that extra point.”

Cal Clutterbuck and Brock Nelson also scored for the Islanders, who won their seventh straight at Nassau Coliseum and snapped Vegas’ four-game winning streak.

Alex Tuch and Jonathan Marchessault had the goals for the Golden Knights. Goaltender Malcolm Subban added 28 saves.

“It was fast, it was furious. There were great plays, great saves — everything you want in a game,” New York coach Barry Trotz said. “It was a fun hockey game.”

Marchessault was sent off for tripping at 3:10 of OT, giving the Islanders a 4-on-3 advantage. That led to Pulock’s winner after New York won the faceoff in the Vegas zone.

Anders Lee assisted on the defenseman’s fourth goal of the season.

“It was a hard-fought game and fun to be part of,’’ Golden Knights defenseman Nate Schmidt said. “Too bad it had to end.”

Semyon Varlamov stopped 31 shots for his ninth win of the season. He made a sterling glove save on Mark Stone in overtime.

“Everybody was invested,’’ Trotz said. “I can’t think of one line I was disappointed in. ... I like the way we played. Great atmosphere. One of our better games of the year.”

Marchessault tied the game for the Golden Knights at 15:28 of the third after Nelson put the Islanders ahead earlier in the period. Marchessault, who had a hat trick in a win over the Devils on Tuesday, whipped the puck past Varlamov for his ninth goal of the season. Nicolas Hague and Reilly Smith assisted.

Nelson snapped a shot past Subban at 3:56 for his ninth of the season. Anthony Beauvillier and Scott Mayfield assisted.

It was the first time the Golden Knights visited the Islanders’ original home at Nassau Coliseum after Vegas’ previous two road games against New York were played at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

This one had a playoff feel, rare for teams that meet only twice per season. Several dozen Golden Knights fans chanted loudly for their team but were quickly drowned out by the loud home crowd.

“It was a great game, two teams battled real hard. I love the way our team competed,’’ Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said. “It was a real good road trip. If we keep playing like this, we’ll win a lot of hockey games.”

The Islanders improved to 8-2-0 at Nassau Coliseum, where they are playing a majority of their home games this season, two years before a planned move into their new arena at Belmont Park.

Clutterbuck opened the scoring at 4:26 of the second, scoring unassisted to finish a 3-on-1 break when he rifled the puck past Subban for his third goal of the season.

Tuch tied it at 15:27 when he wired the puck over Varlamov’s right shoulder to continue his stellar play on the road trip. Tuch also scored twice in Monday’s 4-1 victory over the Rangers at Madison Square Garden and had three assists in Tuesday’s 4-3 win at New Jersey. Cody Glass and Jon Merrill assisted on Tuch’s fifth goal of the season.

Subban made a number of excellent saves in the first period. He had a sharp glove stop on defenseman Adam Pelech at 14:50 and another on Jordan Eberle on his doorstep at 16:10.

Varlamov had an especially strong second, denying Smith, the Golden Knights’ leading goal scorer, on a 2-on-1 chance from the right circle. Varlamov stopped Marchessault from point-blank range while Vegas was on a power play 12 minutes into the middle period.

The Islanders held a 13-8 shots advantage after the scoreless first. Vegas outshot the Islanders 13-12 in the second, and the Golden Knights had an 11-4 edge in the third.

The Islanders were coming off a 4-2 loss at Montreal on Tuesday and had played five of their last six on the road since an overtime win in Brooklyn against Pittsburgh on Nov. 21.

Avalanche 3, Canadiens 2

Gabriel Landeskog scored in his return from a lower-body injury and the Colorado beat slumping Montreal.

Ryan Graves and Matt Calvert also scored and backup goalie Pavel Francouz made 39 saves to help the Avalanche win their fifth straight game and improve to 18-8-2.

Brendan Gallagher and Nick Cousins scored for Montreal The Canadiens have lost nine of 10 to fall to 12-11-6.

Cayden Primeau stopped 32 shots in his NHL debut. The 20-year-old son of former NHL player Keith Primeau played in the first of a back-to-back for Montreal, with Carey Price set to face the New York Rangers on Friday night.

Hurricanes 3, Sharks 2 (SO)

Andrei Svechnikov scored in the shootout, Petr Mrazek stopped San Jose cold in the tiebreaker and Carolina beat the Sharks.

Svechnikov had a goal and an assist in regulation, Jake Gardiner also scored, and Warren Foegele added two assists for the Hurricanes. Mrazek stopped 28 shots.

Svechnikov had the only goal of the tiebreaker, beating Aaron Dell with a forehand to his stick side in the third round. Mrazek, who had stopped Kevin Labanc and Erik Karlsson in the first two rounds, then stuffed Logan Couture with his pads and stick to end it.

Marcus Sorensen scored, and Couture added a deflected goal for the Sharks.

Wild 5, Lightning 4

Mats Zuccarello had a goal and two assists and Minnesota beat Tampa Bay for its fifth straight victory.

Joel Eriksson Ek, Jason Zucker, Carson Soucy and Victor Rask also scored for the Wild, who have an 11-game point streak (8-0-3). Alex Stalock stopped 30 shots.

Tampa Bay, which is 1-3-1 over its last five games, got goals from Erik Cernak, Mikhail Sergachev, Victor Hedman and Alex Killorn. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 16 saves.

Coyotes 3, Flyers 1

Phil Kessel scored two goals to lead Arizona past Philadelphia.

Darcy Kuemper made 28 saves and Conor Garland also scored for the Coyotes. They improved to 10-3-3 on the road.

Matt Niskanen scored for Philadelphia. The Flyers had won five in a row and had points in seven straight games.

Stars 3, Jets 2 (OT)

Joe Pavelski scored on the power play 2:02 into overtime in Dallas' victory over Winnipeg.

The goal came 31 seconds after Josh Morrissey went to the penalty box. Tyler Seguin picked up a rebound of his own shot and sent a backhand pass to Pavelski, who scored his sixth goal this season.

Dallas' Ben Bishop made 36 saves, 15 in the third period and overtime. Jamie Benn and Denis Gurianov scored the first two goals of the game. The Stars had lost 11 of the last 14 games against Winnipeg.

Blake Wheeler and Mark Scheifele tied ít with third-period goals for the Jets.

Flames 4, Sabres 3

Milan Lucic scored his first goal for Calgary and the Flames held on to beat Buffalo.

Tobias Rieder, Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan also scored for the Flames, who are 4-0-1 in their last five games. Monahan also had an assist for his first multipoint game since Nov. 7.

Interim coach Geoff Ward improved to 3-0-0 since taking over for Bill Peters.

Sam Reinhart, Jake McCabe and Jack Eichel scored for Buffalo, which earned at least one points in its previous four games. Eichel extended his points streak to 11 games (10 goals, 10 assists).