Dave Scatchard did it all for a little boy he once knew in Vancouver.

Scatchard scored twice in a 2:52 span to highlight a three-goal second period as the New York Islanders snapped a five-game losing streak with a 5-2 victory over the reeling Boston Bruins.

A weeping Scatchard revealed after the game he dedicated his performance to 12-year-old Nicholas Beresford, a boy he befriended for more than a year in a Vancouver hospital while playing with the Canucks, but who died of leukemia last week.

"My mom gave me a call yesterday and she told me his parents were trying to get a hold of me because he just passed away of leukemia," Scatchard said. "I told my mom I would have a good game today and dedicate to him. I figured he battled his disease for a year and a half, the least we could as a team was battle hard for 60 minutes. It gives you a great lesson in what it is to play hard and battle hard."

Mariusz Czerkawski added his team-best 15th goal in the second period and Kevin Weekes made 30 saves to help the Islanders end a five-game road winless streak. Their last road win came at Boston on November 28 and they improved to 3-1 against the Bruins this season.

"We were all pretty emotional tonight after learning of Dave's situation," Weekes said. "I think we would have played hard tonight anyway, but that just made tonight's game that more special, that much more meaningful."

With New York leading, 2-1, Scatchard took a pass from rookie defenseman Vladimir Chebaturkin at the left point before firing a shot past goaltender Byron Dafoe for his second goal of the season.

"I think one thing you're seeing right now, when the opponent scores a goal, the air seems to come out of the balloon," Bruins defenseman Don Sweeney said. "Instead of coming back and taking it to the opponent, we're doing the opposite. We get really down when they score against us."

Boston coach Pat Burns pulled Dafoe in favor of Rob Tallas, but Scatchard greeted him by poking a rebound through the goalie's pads for his second career multi-goal game. The other came against the Islanders on March 14, 1998 with the Canucks.

"All three of them on that line were great tonight," Islanders coach Butch Goring said, erferring to Scatchard, Czerkawski and Bill Muckalt. "Every time they were on the ice they were dominant. They scored three goals and they could have had more."

Czerkawski broke a 1-1 tie early in the second period when he beat Dafoe with a shot from the right circle off teammate Claude Lapointe's faceoff win.

"We get those three goals in the second period and we finally played with a lead," Weekes said. "I think that's big. Maybe after playing the way we did in Philadelphia and the way we did tonight, maybe we're starting to see some positive carryover."

Dafoe turned aside 22 of 25 shots, while Tallas stopped all but one of the seven he faced.

"That first goal they got was a pretty good goal, a hard shot. The second goal I'd like to have back," Dafoe said. "I thought we were playing OK and I was playing OK when I got pulled. But you don't get pulled when you're playing well as a team. It's frustrating to me because I hate getting pulled."

The Islanders outshot Boston, 21-8, in the second period but had only a 33-32 advantage overall.

"We didn't we play very well in the second period? That's pretty obvious," Bruins coach Pat Burns said. "Why are we playing the way we are? It's a mystery to me. It is hard for us, I hope people understand this. We're without (Sergei) Samsonov, (Mikko) Eloranta and (Joe) Hulbig, and we've got kids coming and going from Providence who are doing the best they can. But there's only so much they could do."

Samsonov has missed the last two games with an injured left knee. One of the recalls from the minors, Andre Savage, suffered a possible broken nose and concussion when he was elbowed in the head during the third period.

New York's Olli Jokinen opened the scoring with an unassisted goal just over five minutes into the first period before Joe Murphy answered on the power play for Boston at 14:56.

Anson Carter had the other goal for Boston, which fell to 1-7-2 in its last 10 games and 1-6-4 in the last 11 at home.