Blue Jackets score four in third, defeat Islanders

COLUMBUS -- The Columbus Blue Jackets had reason to be tired and discouraged in the third period but instead scored four times for a 6-2 victory against the New York Islanders at Nationwide Arena on Saturday, their sixth straight win.
The score was tied 2-2 before Columbus (17-5-4), playing on consecutive nights after winning 4-1 at the Detroit Red Wings on Friday, got goals from Josh Anderson, Brandon Saad, Lukas Sedlak and Seth Jones in a 12:04 span.
New York (11-11-5) got goals from Josh Bailey and John Tavares. Jaroslav Halak made 32 saves before he was replaced in the third period by J-F Berube (one save).

WATCH: All Islanders vs. Blue Jackets highlights
Jones, Atkinson and Jack Johnson each had a goal and an assist for the Blue Jackets, who are 7-0-1 in the past eight games. Sergei Bobrovsky made 28 saves.
Columbus started the goal barrage after not scoring on a power play to start the third period and appearing to hand momentum to the Islanders.
"The third period we came on like we usually do," Atkinson said. "Our mindset is whether we're down a goal or up a goal, we're still trying to press and get the next goal."
Anderson made it 3-2 at 2:19 with his eighth goal, unassisted, after he intercepted at the blue line a cross-ice clearance by New York defenseman Nick Leddy and scored with a slap shot.

"It was a silly mistake by myself and it kind of snowballed," Leddy said. "After that play momentum favored them. They used it to [their] advantage."
Saad got his eighth at 9:23 with a shot from the high slot off a pass from Oliver Bjorkstrand. Sedlak made it 5-2 at 12:39 with a rebound for the rookie's second of the season and second in two games.
"We just kept going" Johnson said. "We had a lot of chances. We have a ton of confidence in this room, a lot of positive energy that's been contagious this year."
Jones had a slap shot at 14:23 for his fourth goal of the season and a 6-2 lead.
"It's disappointing the way we played because we've had some good third periods lately," Tavares said.

Goal of the game

Anderson's winner was nothing fancy. He took advantage of an egregious turnover by Leddy and overpowered Halak with his shot.

Save of the game

Bobrovsky stopped Cal Clutterbuck's shorthanded shot 36 seconds into the third period by squaring to the shooter and denying the near post to keep the score 2-2.

Unsung performance of the game

Columbus forward Matt Calvert drew two hooking penalties on Tavares. The first led to a Blue Jackets power-play goal. Calvert was a plus-2 and helped keep the Islanders scoreless on three power plays.

Highlight of the game

Bailey scored a weird one when he got his stick on a back pass by Blue Jackets forward Sam Gagner at the left half wall. The puck fluttered all the way to Bobrovsky and off him into the net.

They said it

"You're not going to play good when you make dumb decisions with the puck. It has nothing to do structurally. Nothing to do goaltending-wise. We just got the puck on our stick like we never had it there before and made some bad decisions." -- Islanders coach Jack Capuano
"Our start wasn't perfect for sure, but our last 50 minutes was excellent. We got rewarded. We keep sticking with our structure, sticking with our game plan. I think it wears on teams and we find ways to win." -- Blue Jackets forward Brandon Dubinsky
"We had some mistakes, which are part of the game, but we weren't able to rebound from them. They were more opportunistic than us late in the game and got a couple of goals." --Islanders forward Josh Bailey

Need to know

Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno missed his second straight game because of illness. … Johnson's power-play goal ended a streak of 21 straight kills for the Islanders. … New York failed to get a point for the first time in seven games (5-1-1). … The Islanders outscored the Blue Jackets 19-9 winning all five games last season. They were 7-0-2 in the previous nine games in the series. … Atkinson has 19 points (six goals) in the past 14 games. ... Saad has four goals and four assists in eight games.

What's next

Islanders:Host the Washington Capitals on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; MSG+, CSN-DC, NHL.TV)
Blue Jackets: At the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday (9 p.m. ET; SNW, FS-O, NHL.TV)