Islanders move four points out of wild card

NEW YORK -- The New York Islanders moved within four points of the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference with a 2-1 win against the New Jersey Devils at Barclays Center on Friday.
Anders Lee and Anthony Beauvillier scored, and Jaroslav Halak made 26 saves for the Islanders (36-29-12), who lost captain John Tavares with 3:14 remaining because of a lower-body injury.
The Islanders ended a three-game losing streak. They have five games remaining.

"The last few games before today, we were just extremely disappointed," Lee said. "The boys were down. I mean, it was a letdown, those few games. We worked so hard to get back to where we needed to be. To have those efforts, it was just really demoralizing. We responded tonight.
"Right now, all we can do is win games. We've put ourselves in a spot where it's not necessarily up to us, but all we can do is win games."
WATCH: All Devils vs. Islanders highlights
Adam Henrique scored, and Keith Kinkaid made 36 saves for the Devils (27-36-14), who gave the Islanders 10 power plays and have lost five in a row (0-3-2).
"I thought it was pretty competitive, we got into some penalty trouble there," New Jersey coach John Hynes said. "I thought our penalty kill came up huge, I thought we owned the game 5-on-5. It was a pretty good game by both teams and I thought both goaltenders played fairly well. Unfortunately for us, we've got to stay out of the box there a little bit. We didn't do enough to win tonight."
Lee gave the Islanders a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal 5:44 into the first period. Beauvillier made it 2-0 with 2:06 remaining in the second period.

Henrique ended Halak's shutout when he scored a power-play goal with 8:37 remaining in the third period. Pavel Zacha took a slap shot from the slot that Halak stopped, but the puck trickled to the left side of the net after John Quenneville tried to jam at the rebound and Henrique quickly scored his 20th goal to make it 2-1.
Tavares was injured while pursuing a puck behind the Devils net late in the third period. He clutched what appeared to be his left hamstring as he fell to the ice and needed help from two teammates to get to the locker room.
"It's always hard to see anybody get hurt," Halak said. "We'll see how serious it is and go from there."
New York had five power plays in the first period and finished 1-for-10. New Jersey was 1-for-3.

Goal of the game

Johnny Boychuk sent a hard pass from the right point to the front of the net, where Lee patiently stopped the puck and backhanded a shot between Kinkaid's pads for his 29th goal.

Save of the game

Halak preserved a 1-0 lead when he got across the crease to get his left pad on John Moore's one-timer at the side of the net after a cross-ice pass by Beau Bennett with 3:02 remaining in the second period.

Highlight of the game

Jason Chimera sent the puck up the left wing to Joshua Ho-Sang, who made a cross-ice pass to Beauvillier at the right circle. Beauvillier quickly sent a wrist shot that beat Kinkaid short-side for his ninth of the season.

Unsung performance of the game

Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech blocked four shots and had two hits in 13:40 of ice time.

They said it

"I thought we played extremely hard. I thought 5-on-5, we were pretty good. Obviously, we could have been a little bit better in the offensive zone, but I really liked our game. I thought we played hard. We played for each other, we stuck up for each other. That was good to see." -- Devils captain Andy Greene
"All you can do is worry about yourselves, but we know where we stand. We all check it. The last two games we lost, everyone else has won. Literally everyone. That doesn't go unnoticed. It's up to us. It's kind of been that way since we started to climb out of it. This time, we're just going to need some help." -- Islanders forward Anders Lee

Need to know

Islanders coach Doug Weight said Tavares will be re-evaluated Saturday. … The Islanders had two 5-on-3 man advantages in the first period and didn't score on either. … The 10 times shorthanded was a Devils season high. … Devils defenseman Michael Kapla played 15:07 in his NHL debut. Kapla signed an entry-level contract Tuesday after finishing his season at UMass-Lowell. … The Islanders were without defenseman Travis Hamonic and center Casey Cizikas because of upper-body injuries sustained during a 6-3 loss at the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday.

What's next

Devils: At the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; CSN-PH, MSG+, NHL.TV)
Islanders: At the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday (3 p.m. ET; SN, MSG-B, MSG+, NHL.TV)