NEW YORK -- The turnaround for Andrew Ladd and the New York Islanders came too late to save Jack Capuano's job, but perhaps just in time save the season and prove their former head coach prescient.

Ladd and the Islanders continued to surge Thursday night, when the veteran center scored two goals -- including the tie-breaking tally in the third period -- as New York beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-1 at Barclays Center.

Ladd, who signed a seven-year contract with the Islanders in July, has scored six of his 10 goals this season in his last 11 games dating back to Dec. 23, a stretch that includes both of his two-goal games. After Ladd scored twice against the Washington Capitals on Dec. 27, Capuano said he wasn't worried about Ladd's slow start because he scored 16 of his 25 goals last season after Christmas.

"I think I've been around long enough to realize when you're going through something like that, how to try to persevere through it," Ladd said. "I know in the past, when I've got hot, I can score a lot of goals in bunches. So hopefully can ride this and play some of my best hockey at the end of the year."

By winning five of their last six games -- a stretch that began with Capuano's final game at the helm, a 4-0 win over the Boston Bruins on Jan. 16 -- the Islanders have begun to believe they can be playing some games that matter at the end of the season.

New York spent much of the first half of the season in the Eastern Conference basement, but Capuano said Dec. 27 he believed the Islanders would soon be rewarded for sticking with their style of hockey.

Now, the Islanders are 4-0-1 under interim head coach Doug Weight and will enter the All-Star Break no worse than tied for 11th place in the East with games in hand on every conference opponent except the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs.

"Obviously, Cappy's been a big part of this organization," Islanders center Josh Bailey said of Capuano, who was the head coach for more than six seasons and served in the organization for 10 seasons. "This is nothing against him in any shape or form. I think we just realized it was now or never. We had to kind of get the foot on the gas here and get it going."

Weight, a former New York captain who played 19 seasons in the NHL, said he isn't surprised by the urgency the Islanders have displayed since he took over behind the bench.

"There's going to be that desperation from those guys," Weight said. "They have a new teacher. They have a new somebody to impress. That's just human nature. They want to show that. I've been there. They want to show me that they want to get on the ice."

Ladd scored with 6:53 left in the first for the Islanders, who outshot the Canadiens 30-13 in the first two periods but entered the third period tied thanks to Montreal defenseman Shea Weber's goal with 5:51 remaining in the second.

Islanders center John Tavares won a faceoff deep in the Canadiens zone to set up Ladd's game-winning goal 7:20 into the third. New York defenseman Nick Leddy outreached Montreal defenseman Alexei Emelin to the puck and passed to Tavares, who dished to Ladd, whose shot sailed under the glove of goalie Carey Price.

Another Tavares faceoff win set up Bailey's insurance goal -- which he scored just three seconds into a power play -- with 4:47 remaining.

"Looks like the tank was empty, honestly," Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien said. "I thought we had nothing. I could see it from the beginning of the game. Everything was hard for us."

Thomas Greiss made 21 saves for the Islanders and has faced just 45 shots in the last two games, both New York wins.

"They believe they're a good hockey team right now," Weight said.

Price made 39 saves for the Canadiens.

"Carey was outstanding," Therrien said. "If not for him, the game wouldn't have been that close."

NOTES: Three players from Thursday's game are headed to Los Angeles for Sunday's NHL All-Star Game: Islanders C John Tavares, Canadiens G Carey Price and Canadiens D Shea Weber. ... The Islanders scratched D Thomas Hickey (lower body) as well as RW Stephen Gionta and D Thomas Hickey. ... Interim Islanders head coach Doug Weight is the second head coach in franchise history to win four of his first five games. Peter Laviolette went 4-0-0-1 (wins-losses-ties-overtime losses) in 2001-02. ... The Canadiens scratched C Alex Galchenyuk (knee), who missed his second straight game and did not travel to New York, as well as RW Ryan Johnston. ... The Canadiens reached the All-Star or Olympic break in first place in their division for the first time since the 1997-98 season.