This time, it was the Toronto Maple Leafs who wrecked the home team's third period.
A night after a humiliating and seemingly demoralizing loss at home to St. Louis, when they squandered a five-goal lead in the third period before an overtime loss, the Maple Leafs rallied to beat the host New York Islanders 6-4 Thursday night.
The Maple Leafs scored the final four goals in the final period.
"After (Wednesday) night, you would have expected us to panic, especially down 2-0," Toronto captain Mats Sundin said. "But we showed a lot of character in coming back."
Tie Domi scored twice for Toronto, and the enforcer, who has six goals in five games, got the Leafs' comeback started. He scored at 3:30 of the second period, and Sergei Berezin tied it 2-2 with a power-play goal at 16:13.
"Now, we're on the road and it's 2-2 going into the third," Domi said. "At that point, we have to like our chances."
Sundin, who had two goals, including the game-winner, gave Toronto a 3-2 lead at 3:41 of the third, but the Islanders struck back.
Mark Parrish got New York to 3-3 with a goal on a two-man advantage, and Taylor Pyatt made it 4-3 for the Islanders at 11:21.
"Once we got to 4-3, we had things going our way again, and we should have won the game," Islanders coach Butch Goring said.
The Maple Leafs could certainly relate to those emotions.
Domi tied it 4-4 just 79 seconds after Pyatt's goal when Sundin's point shot hit his skate and deflected past goalie Wade Flaherty. Sundin scored the game-winner with 2:15 left.
"We found it a little tough to get going right off the bat," Toronto forward Steve Thomas said. "We needed some leadership and some guys to step up and lead us."
Darcy Tucker scored into an empty net with 15 seconds left to seal the win.
HURRICANES 2, FLYERS 0: Sami Kapanen scored late in the second period, and Arturs Irbe stopped 25 shots for his 27th career shutout as Carolina beat Philadelphia.
Irbe's shutout was his third of the season and third in his past five games against the Flyers, who saw their four-game road winning streak stopped.
COYOTES 2, WILD 0:MikeSullivan scored short-handed, and backup goalie RobertEsche broke a two-game losing streak with the first shutout of his short career as Phoenix defeated visiting Minnesota.
PREDATORS 3, BLACKHAWKS 0:TomasVokoun stopped 22 shots for his first shutout of the season and third of his career as Nashville earned its third straight victory.
SHARKS 3, MIGHTY DUCKS 2 (OT):ScottHannan scored with 10 seconds left in overtime as San Jose beat Anaheim.
CANADIENS 4, CANUCKS 3: Jose Theodore made 23 saves and four Montreal players scored as the Canadiens won their third straight by winning at Vancouver.