Rapid Recap: Islanders 2, Blue Jackets 1

The New York Islanders ended 2022 on a high note with a 2-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night. With their third straight win at UBS Arena, the Islanders tied their longest home winning streak of the season.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau (1G, 1A) and Mat Barzal buried goals for the Islanders, while Emil Bemstrom ended Ilya Sorokin's shutout bid with 22 seconds left in the third period. The Blue Jackets dropped their seventh straight game.
The Islanders extended their winning streak against the Blue Jackets to six straight, raising the season series to 3-0-0.

THE SCORING

First Period
No scoring.
Second Period
7:12 - NYI 1, CBJ 0 - Jean Gabriel Pageau forces a turnover at the Islanders blue line, skates it into the Columbus zone and drops it back to Hudson Fasching, who puts it on net before Pageau cleans up the rebound to open the scoring.

16:39 - NYI 2, CBJ 0 PPG - With the man advantage, Mat Barzal finds open ice and takes a one-timer from the dot off a feed from Brock Nelson. Pageau picked up his second point of the night with a secondary assist.

Third Period
19:38 - NYI 2, CBJ 1 - The puck deflects off Emil Bemstrom's chest and into the net off a one-timer from Marcus Bjork to avoid the shutout. Johnny Gaudreau picks up the secondary assist for his 25th point of the season.

NOTEBOOK

The Islanders snapped the eight-game power-play goal drought, ending an 0-for-27 streak... Mat Barzal scored his 99th career goal and now has four points over his last three games... Barzal has points in his lat nine games against Columbus (6G, 9A)… Brock Nelson now has 37 points in 27 games, and extending his point streak to three games (4A), and took a team-high seven shots… Casey Cizikas played in his 700th NHL game, taking three shots and recording two hits in 16:24 TOI… Hudson Fasching recorded an assist and took two shots in 13:37 TOI... Ross Johnston returned to the lineup for the first time since Nov. 29 and blocked a shot… Ilya Sorokin started for the fifth straight game... For the third straight game, the Islanders held their opponents to 23 shots on goal or fewer.

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Ilya Sorokin stopped made 20-of-21 saves in the win.
Joonas Korpisalo stopped 34-of-36 shots in the loss.

SPECIAL TEAMS

The Islanders went 1-for-3 on the power kill and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.

IMAGE OF THE GAME

NEXT GAME:

The Islanders will open the New Year with a game against the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena. Puck drop is at 8 pm.