Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat each scored twice Thursday night for the host New York Islanders, who overcame a second-period deficit and pulled away to beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 7-3 in Elmont, N.Y.
Pierre Engvall, Cal Clutterbuck and Kyle Palmieri also scored for the Islanders, who racked up seven goals for the first time since a 7-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on March 21.
Goalie Semyon Varlamov had 32 saves as the Islanders collected at least one point for the 10th time in 11 games (6-1-4).
Adam Fantilli scored twice and Emil Bemstrom had a goal for the Blue Jackets, who have lost three straight (0-2-1) and are 5-11-3 since Nov. 1. Goalie Spencer Martin recorded 29 saves.
Engvall scored the only goal of the first period before the teams traded multi-goal flurries in the second.
Bemstrom picked up the rebound of Fantilli’s shot off the back boards and tucked a shot past Varlamov into the right corner of the net at the 5:56 mark. Fantilli then began and ended the rush that yielded the go-ahead goal at 10:11, when he collected the carom of Mike Reilly’s shot off Martin before eventually firing a shot over Varlamov’s glove.
A turnover by the Blue Jackets in the neutral zone led to Clutterbuck’s game-tying goal at 14:30, when the right winger took a pass off his skates from Hudson Fasching, collected the puck and beat Martin from point-blank range.
Barzal scored the go-ahead goal and collected the secondary assist on Palmieri’s power-play goal within 28 seconds. The center put back a rebound of Scott Mayfield’s shot at 18:51 before beginning the tic-tac-toe sequence that ended with Palmieri going to one knee to Martin’s left and burying the shot.
Fantilli scored 1:28 into the third. But the Islanders, who have blown eight third-period leads this season, ended any hopes of a Columbus comeback by scoring three times in a span of 6:18.
Barzal put back the rebound of Horvat’s shot at 5:33. Horvat then scored on a wraparound rebound of his own shot at 11:31 before taking Barzal’s wraparound pass and adding another goal just 20 seconds later.
–Field Level Media
