As the brake lights illuminated on the Long Island Expressway and Cross Island Parkway, the Bruins came out with their foot on the accelerator and raced to a rare two-goal lead early in the first period.

Ironically, it was a traffic jam that led to the first attack in Boston.

Three Islanders parked themselves in front of goaltender Ilya Sorokin ahead of a confrontation on his right.

Elias Lindholm cleanly beat Casey Cizikas from the drop and sent it to Brad Marchand, who with one tap broke through the deadlock in front and past Sorokin, who never saw him, just 57 seconds later.

It was the seventh of the season for the captain, who prepared for his 1,053d match, moving him past general manager Don Sweeney for fourth on the franchise list. Only former captains Ray Bourque (1,518), Johnny Bucyk (1,436) and Patrice Bergeron (1,294) are ahead of Marchand.

Not satisfied, Marchand scored his eighth just over five minutes later.

Nikita Zadorov started the game and sent a pass from deep in Boston to Lindholm, who referred it to Justin Brazeau. The big winger couldn’t control the ball as he tangled with a defender, but the puck trickled to Marchand, who was behind the play, and he went backhand-forehand to beat Sorokin under the glove at 6:31 .

Islanders coach Patrick Roy, whose favorite colors have never been Black and Gold, called a quick timeout to calm his team down.

It worked because New York played less frenetic after the stoppage.

The Islanders halved the deficit when Max Tsyplakov recorded his third of the season.

Parker Wotherspoon failed with his chip on the boards and Brock Nelson picked it out and sent it to Tsyplakov, who slid a backhander between the pads of Joonas Korpisalo at 12:50.

The Bruins had a golden opportunity to extend their lead early in the second when Marchand sent Pastrnak packing for a partial breakaway, but the puck deflected off the winger’s stick just as it got to Sorokin.

The Islanders tied it to a Nelson snipe.

Mason Lohrei couldn’t gather a bouncing puck in the neutral zone and Nelson pounced on the ball. The veteran took the puck and with a step on Lohrei he zipped a beauty off the bar over Korpisalo’s glove at 8:52.

The Bruins answered just over three minutes later when Morgan Geekie netted his second of the season.

Pastrnak brought the puck to the offensive end and released it to Zacha, who weaved through two Islanders before passing to Geekie, who got one touch past Sorokin, who had followed Zacha and not the puck.

Another Bruin misfire led to a crushing goal to end the second.

Zadorov didn’t get enough juice on his clearing attempt and the Islanders kept the game alive long enough for Bo Horvat to get it to a cycling Nelson, who raced past Korpisalo’s short-side blocker to tie the score at 3 with 7.2 remaining. seconds to go. the second.

Jim McBride can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @globejimmcbride.