Recap - Islanders 4, Blue Jackets 3

The final 30 games of the season will all carry importance to the Islanders as they make a playoff push, but a win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday carried a little extra meaning.
The Islanders (57 points) scored a 4-3 comeback win over the Blue Jackets (58 points), but more importantly, picked up two points in regulation against a team they're trying to unseat in the Eastern Conference Wild Card.

"That was huge," Brock Nelson said of banking the two points in regulation. "That was the main message we had coming out of the video session at practice and the hard skate we had. We knew we had to respond and we had a good effort today, it was a good win for us."

Nelson scored the eventual game-winner at 5:14 of the third period as the Islanders snapped a two-game losing streak. With the win, the Islanders are tied with the Philadelphia Flyers (57 points) for the second wild card, though Philadelphia has played one fewer game and holds the tiebreaker.
"Tonight was a big game, a turnaround game for us," said Jordan Eberle, who tied it before Nelson's winner. "We have to understand the way we played and find a way to play 60 minutes and not just 40 and try and come from behind."
The result was what the Islanders needed, but the process wasn't always pretty. The Islanders gave up 26 of their 49 shots in the first period of Saturday's contest and if not for a superb night from Jaroslav Halak, the game's number one star, could have been out of it early.
"We're not sitting here right now feeling good if Jaro didn't have that first period," Head Coach Doug Weight said. "I think he was the only one who got the memo it was a 7 o clock start. He was good. We owe him."

Josh Anderson opened the scoring 6:12 into the first period on Columbus' 14th shot of the game, but after a stressful opening for Weight, the Islanders began a methodical push back.
Nick Leddy's power-play goal - his first tally since Nov. 24 - got the Islanders back on even ground after a lopsided first.
A back-and-forth second period saw Josh Bailey give the Islanders the lead, Cam Atkinson tie it and Nick Foligno put Columbus ahead 3-2 on a breakaway at 18:03. But the Islanders, who responded well after the first period found another gear in the final frame.

Eberle tied it up first, as Mathew Barzal kicked a feed to him in the slot that Eberle snapped through Joonas Korpisalo's five-hole at 2:49. Shortly after Brock Nelson gave the Islanders the lead for good, kicking an Andrew Ladd feed from his skates to his stick before depositing the eventual winner at 5:14.
And while the Blue Jackets blitz the Islanders for 26 shots in the first period, they were only able to muster nine in the third.
"We honestly just figured if kept playing the same way we were in the second period, we were going to win that hockey game," Eberle said. "And we did. The end result was we got two points against a big team."

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