NEW YORK -- The Florida Panthers had two more shots on goal in the first period Tuesday night than the hundreds of Brooklyn-bound fans whose trip to the Barclays Center was delayed or cancelled entirely due to hours-long delays on the Long Island Rail Road.

The Panthers spent the final two periods making the New York Islanders look as if they were the ones who got stuck in traffic.

Goalie Roberto Luongo recorded 33 saves, and five players scored a goal apiece as the Panthers overcame their slow start to beat the Islanders 5-1.

The Panthers escaped the first period in a scoreless tie despite being outshot 19-2. Florida managed to kill three penalties during the opening 20 minutes.

"I didn't mind, to be honest with you, getting outshot 19-2," Panthers coach Gerard Gallant said. "Nobody likes that as a coach, obviously, but I don't think it was that bad. I thought Luongo made two or three really good saves to keep the game scoreless. It probably should have been 2-0 for them after the first."

The Panthers didn't wait long in the second to make the Islanders pay for their inability to take the advantage of their first-period dominance. Right winger Reilly Smith's goal 1:51 into the second gave Florida a lead it would never relinquish.

"Sometimes that's going to happen," Luongo said of the first period. "It's my job to make the save and hopefully keep the boys in it. Looks like we found our legs in the second and we got going."

Center Aleksander Barkov capitalized on a turnover behind the Islanders' net by center Frans Nielsen to score an unassisted goal at the 7:25 mark.

New York cut the gap in half with 7:23 remaining in the second on a goal by center Brock Nelson, but defenseman Aaron Ekblad scored 20 seconds later -- before Nelson's score could even be announced -- to once again give the Panthers a two-goal lead.

"(In) the second and the third, I thought we played a lot better team game," Gallant said. "We buried our chances. We didn't have a whole lot, but we took advantage of our chances."

Florida center Vincent Trocheck scored 1:23 into the third period, and left winger Jonathan Huberdeau added a short-handed, empty-net goal with 3:43 remaining for the Panthers, who took just 16 shots.

With the win, the Panthers (15-12-4) remained two points behind the New Jersey Devils and Boston Bruins in the race for the two wild-card spots in the Eastern Conference.

"It's tough to keep going the momentum they had in the first period throughout 60 minutes," Smith said. "I think we just kind of wore them down a little bit. On the other side of things, it's frustrating when you get a lot of opportunities and you're not putting anything in the back of the net. You could see the frustration kind of building on their team tonight."

Islanders head coach Jack Capuano agreed.

"Maybe after the first period, to start the second, we didn't come out as hard as we could have after dominating play and not getting any scoring whatsoever," Capuano said. "But that might have been five or six minutes out of the 60."

The loss snapped a 10-game point streak for the Islanders (18-9-5), who went 8-0-2 following a 4-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Nov. 22. New York fell into third place in the Metropolitan Division, a point behind the crosstown Rangers.

"We just have to rebound," Capuano said. "As I told the guys: We've played pretty good hockey up until this point in this stretch, and we played good tonight. But (we) just didn't get the results we wanted."

Goalie Jaroslav Halak made 12 saves for the Islanders.

NOTES: The Panthers scratched C Derek MacKenzie (lower body), RW Jaromir Jagr (flu) and C Corban Knight. The 43-year-old Jagr entered Tuesday leading Florida in goals (nine) and points (21). The Islanders are the opponent Jagr has played the most (108 games) as well as the team against whom he has his most goals (61) and points (154). ... The Panthers recalled C Rocco Grimaldi from Portland of the AHL and sent C Dave Bolland to the same affiliate. Bolland has one goal and five points in the second year of a five-year, $27.5 million contract. ... The Islanders scratched RW Steve Bernier, LW Eric Boulton and D Brian Strait. ... C Ryan Strome returned to the lineup for the Islanders after missing Sunday's game with an upper body injury.