Blue Jackets defeat Islanders with 51 shots

NEW YORK-- Oliver Bjorkstrand and Pierre-Luc Dubois each had a goal and an assist to help the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 4-1 win against the New York Islanders at Barclays Center on Tuesday.

Brandon Dubinsky and Cam Atkinson scored, Zach Werenski had three assists, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 29 saves for the Blue Jackets (29-23-4), who took 51 shots on goal.
Columbus won consecutive games for the first time since Jan. 7-8 and has won two straight following a five-game losing streak. The Blue Jackets are one point behind the Carolina Hurricanes for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference, two points ahead of the Islanders.
WATCH: [All Blue Jackets vs. Islanders highlights]
"Every point is huge," Werenski said. "It's nice to get two points and not allow them to get one. At the end of the year, it's going to come down to one or two points to make the playoffs, especially in our tight (Metropolitan) Division ... every game is going to be huge going forward."
John Tavares scored for the Islanders (27-25-6), who have lost six of eight (2-5-1). Jaroslav Halak made 47 saves.

"All you can do is move on to the next game," Tavares said. "No one is going to feel sorry for ourselves. It's only up to us to find a way to break through and start playing the hockey we need to play to get the results we need."
Dubois scored the tiebreaking, power-play goal with 57 seconds left in the second period on a slap shot from the right circle to give Columbus a 2-1 lead.
Dubinsky scored at 6:01 of the third period, and Atkinson scored 43 seconds later for a 4-1 lead. The Blue Jackets have scored 10 goals in their past two games and at least four in each after going 15 games without more than three.

"Keep playing the game plan, keep putting as many pucks to the net as we can, and hopefully [10 goals in two games] is what we needed to break things open," Dubinsky said.
Tavares gave the Islanders a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal with 2:09 left in the first period. It was his 29th goal of the season and 600th NHL point.
Bjorkstrand scored a power-play goal at 6:02 of the second period to tie the game 1-1. It was the Blue Jackets' 33rd shot on goal.
"First period, shots from everywhere, and we were down 1-0," Columbus coach John Tortorella said. "We just stayed with it, we scored a couple of huge goals on our power play. ... The past couple nights, the pucks have gone in for us."
It was the sixth time in eight games the Islanders have allowed at least 40 shots on goal.
"It's disappointing," New York forward Cal Clutterbuck said. "There isn't a guy in this room that doesn't want (to win). ... They had [26] shots in the first period, they had a couple of power plays, shot the puck a lot on the power play and at 5-on-5. Everyone wants to make a story out of that, but at the end of the day, it was a 1-1 hockey game with a couple minutes left in the second period."
The Islanders host the New York Rangers on Thursday and visit the Hurricanes on Friday.
"It all comes down to everybody really wanting it, and I think they wanted it more than we did and they deserved to win tonight," Halak said. "That's the bottom line. ... I think we need more from everybody."

Goal of the game

Dubois' goal at 19:03 of the second period.

Save of the game

Bobrovsky's save on Anthony Beauvillier 1:46 into the third period.

Highlight of the game

Bjorkstrand's goal at 6:02 of the second period.

They said it

"This is what you play for. The summertime [stinks]. Obviously you get a vacation and can do some fun things with your family and stuff like that, but you're training every day, grinding every day. ... We're in an awesome race right now and having fun with it. It's going to be a tough finish and I think we're up for the challenge." -- Blue Jackets center Brandon Dubinsky
"It doesn't matter about the shot total, we just didn't have our game, and not to say that we didn't try, but we just were flat." --Islanders coach Doug Weight

Need to know

Tavares has 264 goals and 336 assists in 645 NHL games. He won 17 of 22 faceoffs. ... New York defenseman Nick Leddy had a five-game point streak end (three goals, two assists). ... Columbus has at least 30 shots on goal in 11 of its past 15 games. ... The Islanders allowed at least 50 shots on goal for the third time this season (56, Jan. 15 at Montreal Canadiens; 50, Jan. 31 at Toronto Maple Leafs). … Columbus defeated the New Jersey Devils 6-1 on Saturday.

What's next

Blue Jackets: At the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, SN, TVAS, FS-O, NHL.TV)
Islanders: Host the New York Rangers on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; MSG+ 2, MSG, NHL.TV)