Fantilli has three points but Islanders down Jackets

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Mathew Barzal had two goals and two assists for the New York Islanders in a 7-3 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at UBS Arena on Thursday.

Bo Horvat scored twice in 20 seconds in the third period and had an assist, and Semyon Varlamov made 32 saves for the Islanders (11-7-7), who responded from a 5-4 overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday when they blew a three-goal lead in the third.

“Obviously everybody’s just happy to get a win, so we know exactly what’s being said about us about blowing leads and whatnot,” Barzal said. “So, we’re trying to just prove people wrong. That’s not who we are. Just right a new ship.”

Adam Fantilli had two goals and an assist, and Emil Bemstrom had a goal and an assist for the Blue Jackets (8-15-5), who have lost three in a row (0-2-1) and four of five (1-3-1). Spencer Martin made 29 saves.

“We could have had more goals than we did,” Fantilli said. “[We had] a couple of breakdowns, a couple of bad bounces. I thought for the most part of that game we were playing really well. We were playing our best, [but] a couple of our breakdowns ended up in the back of our net.”

Fantilli cut it to 4-3 at 1:28 of the third, but Barzal made it 5-3 at 5:33 when he one-timed Horvat’s feed in the slot.

Horvat gave New York a 6-3 lead on his own rebound at 11:31, then scored again at 11:51 after a pass from Barzal for the 7-3 final.

“We spent the majority of the time in the offensive zone. I mean, that's the best defense anyway, is playing in their end,” Horvat said. “I thought we did a good job of tracking them and taking away their speed. And now, I think we’ve got to continue to keep doing that in those third periods.”

Pierre Engvall gave New York a 1-0 lead at 4:00 of the first period with his third goal in four games.

Bemstrom tied it 1-1 at 5:56 of the second period, scoring on a rebound of Fantilli’s shot from the left circle that went off the end boards.

Fantilli gave Columbus a 2-1 lead at 10:11, finishing a tic-tac-toe passing play with Kent Johnson and Zach Werenski in the right circle.

“He’s been assertive since Day One. He’s a confident young man,” Blue Jackets coach Pascal Vincent said on Fantilli, the No. 3 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft. “He had some good offensive-zone time today.”

Cal Clutterbuck tied it 2-2 at 14:30 when he took a pass from Hudson Fasching and beat Martin from between the circles.

“Big goal by Clutterbuck there, for sure,” Barzal said. “The bench was a little quiet and obviously the crowd was. It was quiet out there, so for him to get that one just got us going on the bench, got us a little more animated and [the goals] just kind of started to rainfall in.”

Barzal put New York back in front 3-2 with a shot from the left circle at 18:51, and Kyle Palmieri one-timed Brock Nelson’s feed on a power play at 19:19 to make it 4-2.

“I thought we had a push, and then when they scored early in the third, we kept pushing,” Islanders coach Lane Lambert said. “We knew we'd be in that position. We figured probably be in that position again tonight. And our guys did a great job of responding and doing what they needed to do by staying aggressive.”

NOTES: Horvat extended his point streak to five games (nine points; four goals, five assists). … Islanders forward Julien Gauthier has a three-game point streak (four points; two goals, two assists) for the first time in his NHL career. … It was Fantilli’s first multigoal game in the NHL, and the first time in League history that four players from the University of Michigan played on the same team (Fantilli, Nick Blankenburg, Johnson, Werenski). All four were on the ice for Bemstrom’s goal.