Islanders defeat Blue Jackets, extend point streak

NEW YORK --Nikolay Kulemin scored the go-ahead goal in the second period to help the New York Islanders extend their point streak to five games with a 4-2 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Barclays Center on Tuesday.
The Islanders (20-17-9) are 3-0-1 under coach Doug Weight and 4-0-1 in their past five games.
"Top to bottom, it was one of the best efforts of the year," Weight said. "We really did a great job against a good team."

WATCH: All Blue Jackets vs. Islanders highlights
Thomas Greiss made 21 saves and has allowed five goals in his past four starts.
Columbus (32-11-4) lost for the sixth time in its past 11 games since a 16-game winning streak.
"We played a good first period, but I don't know where it went from there," Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said. "Everybody was involved in the loss tonight."
Nick Foligno scored in the first period for the Blue Jackets before Josh Bailey tied the game at 2:21 into the second period to make it 1-1 with his 100th NHL goal.

"It wasn't the prettiest one," Bailey said. "It's not something I was really stressing over. I just go out there and play hockey, but it was nice to get it out of the way."
Brock Nelson scored on a wrist shot 35 seconds into the third period to give New York a 3-1 lead. It was his 10th goal of the season and first in 11 games.

Jason Chimera made it 4-1 at 5:21 of the third period. It was Chimera's fifth goal in the past seven games.
Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who allowed four goals on 24 shots, was replaced by backup Joonas Korpisalo (five saves) after the goal.
Cam Atkinson scored for the Blue Jackets with 5:21 remaining.
"We have to play with more desperation as a group," Columbus forward Brandon Dubinsky said. "We have to realize that the conference is tight. Every team is pushing for a playoff spot. I looked the other day and there was five points separating last from the wild card."

Goal of the game

Kulemin broke a 1-1 tie at 16:29 of the second period when he put a backhand shot past Bobrovsky off a point shot from Calvin de Haan.

Save of the game

Cal Clutterbuck split two defenders and skated in on Bobrovsky with 4:48 left in the first period, but his forward-to-backhand shot was stopped to keep the Blue Jackets ahead, 1-0.

Unsung performance of the game

The discipline of the Islanders. They didn't allow the Blue Jackets to have a power-play opportunity all game. Columbus entered with the No. 1 ranked power play in the NHL (25.0 percent).

Highlight of the game

Bailey took a sharp angle shot which was intended as a pass for Kulemin, but it hit off Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones' skate giving him his first goal in four games.

They said it

"I think we believe it is there, so we just know it's got to be there consistently. We know Sunday (a 3-2 overtime loss against the Philadelphia Flyers) wasn't our best game, obviously. We had some chances to win it. But we made some adjustments, looked at some video, got a good day off the ice [Monday] and seemed to come with a little more jump today." --Islanders captain John Tavares
"We have to find ways to be desperate here. We have to find ways to sustain a good game all the way through. We have not done that in a while here. That is cause for concern."-- Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno

Need to know

Islanders forward Andrew Ladd returned after missing four games because of a lower-body injury. He replaced Anders Lee, who was ill. ... Leddy had an assist and has three goals and six assists in the past eight games. … It was the fourth time this season the Islanders didn't allow a power-play opportunity to their opponent. ... Atkinson leads the Blue Jackets with 24 goals this season.

What's next

Blue Jackets:At the Nashville Predators on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; FS-TN, FS-O, NHL.TV)
Islanders:Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; MSG+, RDS, SNE, NHL.TV)