New York @ Montreal preview

Last Meeting ( Mar 14, 2019 ) Montreal 1, NY Islanders 2

The Montreal Canadiens face a killer five-game stretch to end the regular season, but they play three of their next four at home beginning with Thursday night's matchup against the New York Islanders. The Canadiens had lost four of five prior to Tuesday's 3-1 victory in Philadelphia, a mini-swoon that included a 2-1 road loss to the Islanders.

Despite failing to score more than three goals for the eighth consecutive game, Montreal stifled the Flyers to pull within one point of Columbus for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference. "We’re not out of the woods yet. We have to keep on winning," coach Claude Julien warned after beating Philadelphia. "We’re setting this game aside and thinking about the next one.” New York is thinking about more than the next one after falling out of a tie for first place in the Metropolitan Division with Tuesday's 5-0 shellacking by Boston. The Islanders, who play four of the next five on the road, announced Wednesday that third-line center Valtteri Filppula will be sidelined for four weeks due to an upper-body injury sustained in Tuesday's loss.

TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, MSG-Plus (New York), RDS, TSN2 (Montreal)

ABOUT THE ISLANDERS (42-24-7): Coach Barry Trotz was unsure who would take the spot of Filppula, although Tom Kuhnhackl centered a line of Anthony Beauvillier and Leo Komarov at Wednesday's practice. ""We have some big shoes to fill now with Fil out," captain Anders Lee said of the injury to 15-goal scorer Filppula. "Until he can come back, we have a bit of a hole to fill." Ladd moved to the top line alongside Mathew Barzal and Lee on Wednesday due to the absence of Jordan Eberle, who will accompany the team to Montreal but is listed as day-to-day.

ABOUT THE CANADIENS (38-28-7): Although he has split his last four starts, Carey Price has surrendered only six goals in that span after he was shelled for eight tallies in an 8-2 drubbing at Anaheim on March 8. Price turned aside 36 of 38 shots in the narrow loss on Long Island a week ago and will take an 11-6-4 record and 2.61 goals against average versus New York into Thursday's rematch. Brendan Gallagher halted a five-game goal drought in Tuesday's win to match his career high of 31 and has collected 13 points in 18 meetings against the Islanders.

OVERTIME

1. Islanders G Thomas Greiss has allowed five goals in his last four starts and turned aside 33 of 34 shots to beat Montreal.

2. Canadiens F Max Domi scored his 25th goal Tuesday, the first player to reach that mark in his first season with Montreal since 2011-12.

3. Lee, who had a four-game goal streak halted Tuesday, has four tallies and six points in 15 games versus the Canadiens.

PREDICTION: Canadiens 3, Islanders 2