3 Takeaways: Islanders Rally for Point in 5-4 OT Loss to Blue Jackets

The New York Islanders are still in the driver seat on their road to the playoffs, but they hit a bit of a speedbump on Friday night, falling to the last-place Columbus Blue Jackets 5-4 in overtime at Nationwide Arena.
Brock Nelson (2G), Zach Parise and Kyle Palmieri scored for the Islanders, who scored a pair of third period goals to force overtime and earn a valuable point. The comeback was necessary after the Blue Jackets scored four second period goals, courtesy of Johnny Gaudreau (PPG), Liam Foudy, Kent Johnson and Eric Robinson. Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner scored the OT winner 40 seconds into the extra frame.

"It took us too long to get to our game, but I had to give our guys credit, they found a way to scratch and claw," Head Coach Lane Lambert said. "Considering were going into the third period down two, it was a big point to get."
Despite the OT loss, the Islanders improved to 83 points, putting them three points ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins (80 points) and four clear of the Florida Panthers (79 points), though both teams have a game in hand.
The overtime loss did snap the Islanders three-game losing streak, but extended their point streak to four games. As a result, the Islanders do not sweep the Blue Jackets in their season series, going 3-0-1 against Columbus this year.

ISLES EARN POINT WITH COMEBACK:

Like Lambert said, the Islanders scratched and clawed their way to a point with a two-goal comeback in the third period.
That's important in a playoff chase, but the Islanders were not satisfied with the result, still viewing it as a point lost rather than a point earned.
BLUE JACKETS 5, ISLANDERS 4 OT
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KINGER'S CALLS
Parise Scores 20th
Nelson Converts One-Timer
Palmieri Pulls Within One
Nelson's Second of the Game
"To get one coming back down two the third is big, but it's disappointing and feels like we one on the table," Zach Parise said. "That's a little frustrating."
Down 4-2 entering the third period, the Islanders - who entered the game with four two-goal third period comeback wins this season - blitzed the Blue Jackets. The Islanders swarmed the Blue Jackets to start the period, generating six of the first seven shots on goal, culminating with and Adam Pelech shot deflecting off Kyle Palmieri at 3:34.
Brock Nelson followed it up four-and-a-half minutes later, netting his second goal of the game on the power play, roofing a shot over Michael Hutchinson. The Isles had 14 shots, 30 shot attempts and seven high-danger chances at five-on-five in the third period alone to get back into the game.
"We had the recipe, we just had to kind of execute and play fast and on our toes and we didn't really have anything to save it for," Palmieri said of the third period mindset. "We were going to try and salvage a point. Thought we maybe left another one on the table there."
An Anders Lee high sticking penalty in the final minute of the third period put the Blue Jackets on an overtime power play, where Boone Jenner deflected an Adam Boqvist point shot for the winner. The Isles dropped to 5-9 in overtime in the process.

ISLES ALLOW FOUR IN SECOND PERIOD:

Despite the disparity in the standings, and being severely undermanned, the Islanders paid the Blue Jackets the proper pregame respect, born of three one-goal wins earlier this season.
Columbus showed why in the second period, rattling off four goals to turn a 1-0 Islanders lead into a 4-2 Blue Jackets advantage by the break.
Johnny Gaudreau's power-play goal at 4:58 tied the score 1-1, coming just over a minute after a Kirill Marchenko goal was successfully challenged and overturned by the Isles due to goalie interference. The challenge was Lane Lambert's second successful challenge this season.
The tie game didn't last long, as Nelson reestablished the Islanders, one-timing a quick Kyle Palmieri feed after the Islanders created a turnover during a Blue Jackets breakout. Nelson's goal was his 31st of the season and it game 32 seconds after Gaudreau's equalizer.
Columbus didn't go quietly, as Liam Foudy tied the score 2-2 at 8:59, converting a Jack Roslovic feed after an Islanders turnover deep in the d-zone. It was a fairly even game at that point, but the Blue Jackets broke it open with a pair of goals 40 seconds apart to end the period.
"Things were just sloppy," Palmieri said. "We eeren't moving our feet. Weren't unable to really generate any speed to a neutral zone or coming out of our zone and it ends up being slow and kind of on our heels."
Kent Johnson put Ilya Sorokin on the wrong end of a highlight reel, which is rare of the Isles netminder, when he scored a Michigan at the 17:06 mark. The lacrosse style goal was Johnson's third, previously scoring them in the BCHL and the World Juniors.
Eric Robinson made it 4-2, 40 seconds later, as Emil Bemstrom's centering feed caromed off Robinson and in. Friday marked the fourth time the Islanders had given up four goals in a period, most recently allowing four goals in the middle frame of a 5-2 loss to the LA Kings on March 14.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON:

Zach Parise hit a couple of milestones when he opened the scoring on Friday night.
Parise's goal was his 20th of the season, hitting the 20-goal mark for the 11th time in his career and first since the 2019-20 season.
What Parise likely didn't know was that he hit a milestone with a familial tie. With the goal, Zach and his late father, Jean-Paul Parise, became the fourth father-son duo to score 20 goals with the same team, per NHL stats.
"That's a neat stat," Parise said after taking in some new information. "We all know how much of an influence he had on me and my career and life and so you know, to have to share something like that with him is it's special."
J.P. Parise hit the 20-goal mark twice from 1975-77 with the Isles. Also per NHL Stats, Ken Hodge and Ken Hodge Jr. (w/ BOS), Peter Stastny and Paul Stastny (w/ QUE/COL) and Greg Malone and Ryan Malone (w/ PIT) are the others to do so.
Parise also became the first Islanders player age 38-or-older to score 20 goals in a season.

NEXT GAME:

The Islanders wrap up a back-to-back set on Saturday evening against the Buffalo. Puck drop is at 5 p.m.