UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) -- The Nashville Predators made the New York Islanders look more like the second-year franchise.

Patric Kjellberg scored two of Nashville's four goals in a 3:38 span of the second period Wednesday night in the Predators' 6-4 victory over the New York Islanders.

	Nashville goalie Tomas Vokoun was able to frustrate Claude Lapointe and the Islanders for much of the night on Wednesday.

"It's always nice to score goals when we win," Kjellberg said. "The wins are more important. We're in a playoff hunt."

After a slow start, the Predators have won four of six and have taken at least one point in 17 of 22 games (11-7-4-2) to put them four points out of a playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Nashville got off to an early lead as defenseman Karlis Skrastins scored 77 seconds into the game on an attempted pass that bounced in off Islanders goalie Kevin Weekes' skate.

The Islanders tied it at 16:06 during a power play when Mariusz Czerkawski scored his team leading 18th goal on a shot from the right circle that got between Tomas Vokoun's pads.

New York took a 2-1 lead at 5:03 of the second period when Tim Connolly scored a highlight-film goal. The lead wouldn't last.

Sebastien Bordeleau tied the game at 7:53 on a pinpoint slap shot from the top of the right circle that hit the upper left corner. Joel Bouchard put the Predators ahead to stay 28 seconds later when he poked a rebound in off a goal-mouth scramble.

Kjellberg scored a key goal at 9:48 when on a rush up the right side, he split two Islanders defensemen and flipped a shot that hit the crossbar and bounced down and in.

"That goal was the icing on the cake," Nashville coach Barry Trotz said. "He splits the D, takes a hit and still gets the shot off and it goes in."

Roberto Luongo came in for Weekes, and Kjellberg scored again at 11:31 on a power play for a 5-2 lead. But the Predators knew the lead was not safe.

"We knew they were going to come back" Nashville center Cliff Ronning said. "There was no quit in that team."

New York got one back with 1:44 left in the period when Josh Green swept a rebound past Vokoun. Green scored again with 7:11 left in the game to close the gap to 5-4. But then Nashville got some breaks.

Vokoun was accidentally run into on a rush by Islanders forward Jorgen Jonsson and stayed down while play continued at the other end. Realizing the whistle would not be blown, Vokoun got up just in time to stop Jonsson on another break-in.

"I'm still a bit out of it," Vokoun said. "I can feel my heart pumping in my head. The referee just didn't pay attention at all. There should have been a penalty."

Right after that the Islanders were whistled for a pair of penalties, giving the Predators a two-man advantage for 1:22. It only took 12 seconds for Ronning to ice the game with a slap shot from the right circle.

"That was a crucial point of the game," Ronning said. "We had to score on the five-on-three, or the game probably would have turned the other way. They let me walk in and shoot, so I did."

The loss was the second straight for the Islanders after a three-game winning streak.