ELMONT, NY – The New York Islanders scored three times in the opening period and the New Jersey Devils couldn’t catch up, dropping a 5-1 decision on the road at UBS Arena on Friday night.

Timo Meier scored the lone goal for the Devils.

After the Devils’ Nate Bastian took a penalty 27 seconds in the game, the Islanders converted to open the scoring. Fredrik Karlstrom flicked a shot from the left circle past Devils netminder Jake Allen with eight seconds to go in the man advantage.

Kyle MacLean blocked a shot and turned it into a breakaway, wristing a shot high blocker just inside the post and in to double the Islanders’ lead.

Isles netminder Semyon Varlamov came up big, making two stops on Dawson Mercer from in close.

Oliver Wahlstrom tripped up Simon Nemec 12 minutes into the opening frame to give the Devils their first power play of the game but Islanders were able to kill that off.

New York got another power play marker late in the frame, however. Bo Horvat one-timed a shot from the slot by Allen with 16 seconds to go, putting the home team in front 3-0.

Shots on goal after one period were 10-5 for the Devils.

Islanders extended their lead to 4-0 when Liam Foudy fired a shot in on the rush several minutes into the second period.

Eight minutes into the middle frame, Casey Cizikas was called for cross-checking Tomas Tatar. Six minutes into that man advantage, Timo Meier snapped one past Varlamov to make it a 4-1 game.

Islanders regained their four-goal lead just moments after a penalty to Curtis Lazar expired. Oliver Wahlstrom’s goal made it 5-1.

After two periods, shots were 17-12 for New Jersey.

Johnathan Kovacevic and Travis Mitchell dropped the gloves with just over seven minutes to play in the third period. It was a spirited bout as the Devils defenseman tried to create some spark for his team.

Here are some observations from the game:

• Nobody wants to lose games or start the preseason 0-4-0 but if you look at last season, the Rangers had a 1-5-0 preseason record before going on to win eight of their first 10 games and ending up with the NHL’s best record. Last season, the Devils started the preseason 7-0-0. Their opponents in Prague, the Buffalo Sabres, are currently 5-0-0 in the preseason including a 5-0 win earlier today in Munich against Red Bull Munich of the DEL.

• Dennis Cholowski had a strong game for the Islanders with a pair of assists and a +3 rating in 17:47 of icetime.

• Midway through the third, Stefan Noesen took a shot off the ankle. He skated off the ice on his own strength, gingerly. He did return for a few more shifts.