Noah Dobson scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period Thursday night for the visiting New York Islanders, who moved into an Eastern Conference wild-card spot by beating the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-2.
Dobson ended a 13-game goal drought by capping an end-to-end rush with a snap shot from the upper right faceoff circle that sailed stick side past Columbus goalie Jet Greaves at the 3:21 mark.
Pierre Engvall and Bo Horvat scored in the first period and Kyle Palmieri added an empty-netter with 38 seconds left for the Islanders (34-27-15, 83 points), who have won three straight games — all since Monday — to move into a playoff position.
New York inched ahead of the Washington Capitals (36-29-10, 82 points), who fell to the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-1 on Thursday, and the Detroit Red Wings (37-30-8, 82 points), who were idle on Thursday.
The Capitals and Red Wings have each played one fewer game than the Islanders.
New York is also tied for third place in the Metropolitan Division with the Philadelphia Flyers (36-29-11, 83 points), who have the tiebreaker with 28 regulation wins, three more than the Islanders.
Ilya Sorokin made 25 saves for New York, which got two assists apiece from Alexander Romanov and Mathew Barzal.
Kirill Marchenko had a goal and an assist and Dmitri Voronkov also scored for the Blue Jackets (25-39-12, 62 points), who had their two-game winning streak snapped. Greaves made 24 saves in relief of Danil Tarasov, who stopped 13 of 15 shots before exiting with an upper-body injury late in the first period.
The teams traded power-play goals within a two-minute span prior to the midway point of the first period before later swapping even-strength scores in the frame.
Engvall redirected a shot by Ryan Pulock at the 7:53 mark. Voronkov tied the score at 9:45 when he put his stick down in the crease, received a pass from Marchenko and flicked the puck past Sorokin.
A turnover by Marchenko led to Horvat’s goal at 13:48. Romanov picked Marchenko’s cross-ice pass in the neutral zone and dished it to Barzal. The Islanders center then passed the puck beyond a sliding Columbus defenseman Damon Severson to Horvat, who wound up and fired a shot over Tarasov’s glove.
Marchenko tied the score in bizarre fashion at 17:22. Zach Werenski’s pass glanced off the back boards to Marchenko, who skated almost directly behind the Islanders’ net before sending an angled shot off the side of Sorokin’s head and into the net.
–Field Level Media
