DETROIT -- The Detroit Red Wings begin their bye week Wednesday, and the New York Islanders gave the Wings a bon voyage they won't soon forget.

The Islanders launched a season-high, nine-game road trip with a 3-1 victory over Detroit on Tuesday.

"Anytime you've got a road trip like this, especially at such a crucial point in the season, it's good to start on the right note," Islanders forward Josh Bailey said. "Obviously, we've still got a lot of games left, but we're happy with the start."

New York (28-21-10) is tied with the Florida Panthers and Boston Bruins for the final Eastern Conference wild-card playoff position.

The Islanders won on the road for just the eighth time in 25 games this season. They recognize those numbers must change immediately, or they could soon find themselves far off the pace in the pursuit of a postseason spot.

"This is the solid start we needed for the road trip," Islanders captain John Tavares said. "We know that we've got to climb the ladder during this trip, and we also need to put some space between us and the teams behind us."

Bailey opened the scoring and set up a third-period insurance goal by Tavares. Leaping to keep a Detroit clearing attempt in the zone with his outstretched glove, Bailey carried the puck into the zone before feeding Tavares, who snapped the puck top shelf from the slot for his 22nd goal of the season at 3:42 of the third.

Detroit issued a coach's challenge, protesting that Bailey was offside, but he was certain that the Red Wings were mistaken. The goal stood.

"They made me second-guess it for a second there," Bailey said. "I was confident we were going to get the right call."

The Islanders' other two goals were of the bizarre variety.

Bailey opened the scoring with an unassisted gift at the 15-minute mark of the first period. Detroit goaltender Petr Mrazek stopped a rim around attempt behind his net, but Bailey intercepted Mrazek's clearing attempt and whipped it into the vacated net before Mrazek could return to his position.

"We all saw it on the first goal, I should have held it a little more maybe," Mrazek said. "But nothing I can do about it. I'm trying to make those plays a lot, and I had a mistake today."

The Red Wings tied it with a buzzer-beater on the power play. With 3.2 seconds left in the first period, Frans Nielsen won the draw to Thomas Vanek, who zipped a cross-ice pass to Henrik Zetterberg. Zetterberg's quick wrist shot found the net behind Islanders goalie Thomas Greiss with 0.1 seconds to play.

"It was actually Vanek that made that play," Zetterberg said. "It was kind of like a broken play. Vanek made a nice pass, and I was just lucky there was enough time."

The Islanders reclaimed the lead on a power play at 10:46 of the second period on another bizarre goal. Calvin De Haan's point shot hit Mrazek in the chest, bounced off the face of Detroit defenseman Xavier Ouellet and off Mrazek's left leg and into the net.

The loss halted Detroit's two-game winning streak and left the Wings eight points out of a playoff spot. The setback also made Detroit coach Jeff Blashill ponder whether some of his players had already checked out and left early for their vacation.

"We didn't have enough guys with great jump," Blashill said. "We had some guys, maybe a couple that weren't there at all, but enough guys that just didn't seem to have enough jump.

"I'm not sure why. I don't have that answer, but I'd say we had too many guys without enough jump."

Greiss finished with 26 saves, while Mrazek stopped 19 shots.

NOTES: Detroit D Mike Green returned to the lineup after a two-game absence caused by an illness. ... Detroit F Gus Nyquist sat out the third contest of his six-game NHL suspension for a high-sticking infraction. ... Since Nov. 23, only Montreal's Max Pacioretty (24) and Toronto's Auston Matthews (23) have scored more goals than Islanders F Anders Lee (22). ... Islanders F Cal Clutterbuck returned to the lineup after missing nine games with a lower-body injury, but he did not play in the third period ... Detroit's scratches were F Tomas Jurco and D Ryan Sproul. ... New York's scratches were F Shane Prince (upper body), F Stephen Gionta and D Adam Pelech.