Blue Jackets score 3 late goals, rally to top Islanders

COLUMBUS -- Kirill Marchenko scored twice, and the Columbus Blue Jackets rallied for three goals in the third period to come back for a 4-2 win against the New York Islanders at Nationwide Arena on Sunday.

Marchenko scored the go-ahead goal with a backhand shot from the left circle at 16:41 of the third period, just 1:14 after Ivan Provorov tied it 2-2 with a 59-foot snap shot from near the blue line.

“We just try to find our way,” Marchenko said. “We communicate a lot and we just do it for each other. It's nice we can score at the end of the game.

“They have a back to back. We understand that they are a little slower in the third period. We try to do our best and just give it our all.”

Provorov’s tying goal at 15:27 went past a heavily screened Islanders goaltender David Rittich before finding the back of the net.

“That’s a great hockey play right there,” Blue Jackets forward Mason Marchment said. “Just get two at the net screening the goalie and (Provorov) did a great job getting through. That’s a good way to score goals in this League and we needed that one.”

Cole Sillinger scored into an empty net at 18:54 for the 4-2 final.

“I love the way we played in the third period, that was awesome. Fans were into it and that was great,” Marchment said.

Denton Mateychuk and Sean Monahan each had two assists, and Jet Greaves made 24 saves for the Blue Jackets (16-15-6).

Max Shabanov and Bo Horvat scored, while Rittich made 31 saves for the Islanders (21-14-4), who had a three-game point streak end (2-0-1).

“We've got to figure out a way to close that one out,” Horvat said. “I guess it's not good enough by us in the third period. That's two points that we want to have back, for sure.”

Rittich and the Islanders shut out the New York Rangers 2-0 on Saturday.

“He had done enough over the last 24 hours, so we've got to be better in front of him, and he deserves better from us,” Islanders captain Anders Lee said.

Marchenko started off the scoring, putting the Blue Jackets ahead 1-0 with a snap shot at 8:09 of the first period for his 12th goal of the season.

“We got to our game early. I really liked the way my line played,” Blue Jackets center Adam Fantilli said of Marchment and Marchenko. “We stuck with it the whole game, just a lot of line mismatches with penalties and stuff, but I like how we got back to our game every single time. We played hard, we played fast, we played the right way, and it really benefited us.”

Shabanov tied it 1-1 at 17:16 when Greaves saved a shot by Jean-Gabriel Pageau with his right shoulder, but the puck hopped up behind Greaves and deflected into the net off of Shabanov’s knee. The goal was upheld after being reviewed for the puck being kicked.

The Islanders killed off a 5-on-3 in the second period. Forward Mathew Barzal was issued a major penalty and an ejection for a slash on Marchment, while defenseman Adam Pelech was issued a minor penalty six seconds later for tripping.

“I thought we did a great job on the penalty kill,” Horvat said. “Obviously, our power play (0-for-2) needs to be a little bit better in certain aspects of our game, but for the most part, I thought we played really well in the second. We just weren't good enough in the third.”

Horvat put the Islanders ahead 2-1 at 13:24 of the second period in his second game back since missing five games with a lower-body injury. He took a pass on the rush from Ryan Pulock before firing a wrist shot from the left circle for his 20th goal of the season.

NOTES: Marchment has three goals and an assist in three games since being acquired from the Seattle Kraken on Dec. 19. … Mateychuk has four assists in the past three games. … Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski (lower body) missed his second straight game and was placed on injured reserve retroactive to Dec. 20. … Columbus forward Mathieu Olivier had six hits, two shots, two blocked shots and a takeaway in 13:53 of ice time in his return from missing 13 games due to an upper-body injury. … The Islanders are 4-2-1 in the second half of a back-to-back set of games this season.