Barzal's two goals help Islanders rally past Senators

NEW YORK -- Mathew Barzal scored two goals in the third period to help the New York Islanders rally for a 6-3 win against the Ottawa Senators at Barclays Center on Friday.

Josh Bailey, Anders Lee, Johnny Boychuk and Casey Cizikas scored for New York (19-13-4), which has won five of its past six games and trailed 3-1 late in the second period. Robin Lehner made 10 saves in relief of Thomas Greiss, who allowed three goals on 17 shots before being pulled at 6:11 of the second period.
"We knew we had to get better; we knew it was getting ugly there a little bit," Barzal said. "I'm just trying to look at the net a little more. I only had two shots, so I'm just trying to make the right play. If the shot's there, the shot's there; if it's not, it's not. I've got two scoring players on my line (Bailey and Anthony Beauvillier), and they can score. I'm going to try to get them the puck; they do the same to me. The chemistry's been good lately."
WATCH: [All Senators vs. Islanders highlights]
Mark Stone, Matt Duchene and Cody Ceci scored for Ottawa (15-19-4), which has lost three in a row. Mike McKenna made 33 saves.
"I thought we were solid, came out strong, had control of the game," Senators coach Guy Boucher said. "We gave them two goals. When you give two goals to the opponent, you give them life and they're home and they got momentum out of it."
The Senators took a 1-0 lead at 16:18 of the first period when Stone scored on a wrist shot after intercepting Adam Pelech's pass in the left face-off circle.
Duchene made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 2:47 of the second period when he deked Boychuk in the slot and scored on a wrist shot for his 15th of the season.
The Islanders responded when McKenna turned the puck over to Barzal, who quickly fed Bailey for a one-timer to make it 2-1 at 3:11.

"It starts with me. I'll wear the hat on this one, for sure," McKenna said. "I didn't do my job to win this game. I know it's a team and everybody's responsible for what we do, but that's on me tonight.
"I gave them momentum by screwing one up, so that's what happens sometimes."
Ceci made it 3-1 when he took a pass from Chris Tierney and scored from the right circle at 6:11 of the second period. Greiss was pulled after the goal.

"I thought Thomas could have been a little sharper," New York coach Barry Trotz said. "I thought our bench could be a lot sharper."
Lee started the Islanders rally with 2:32 remaining in the second after Nicholas Paul couldn't handle Ben Harpur's pass deep in the Ottawa zone, which allowed Lee to score from the slot to make it 3-2.
Boychuk tied it at 2:57 of the third period with a slap shot from the right point to make it 3-3.

Barzal then gave the Islanders a 4-3 lead 1:54 later with a wrist shot from the right circle at 4:51.
Barzal scored again on a slap shot from the right circle at 12:24 to make it 5-3.
"I love when he's thinking score rather than 'Let's make a pass,'" Trotz said. "When he's attacking space like he did, he's very, very effective. I liked that about his game today."
Cizikas made it 6-3 with an empty-net goal with 54 seconds remaining.

They said it

"This is the NHL; these guys are all experienced. Regardless of how many years it's been at this point, at this point in the season especially, we've just got to fight through it." -- Senators goalie Mike McKenna
"Once we started getting pucks behind them and we stopped turning pucks over, that's when we kind of took the momentum back on our side. That was something we had to do and we had to find quickly, because you could feel that game slipping away." -- Islanders center Casey Cizikas
Video: OTT@NYI: Cizikas scores empty-net goal to seal win

Need to know

Ottawa defenseman Thomas Chabot sustained an upper-body injury in the second period and will not play against the Washington Capitals on Saturday. … The Senators played 11 forwards and seven defensemen. … Lehner is 7-0-3 against Ottawa, which selected him in the second round (No. 46) of the 2009 NHL Draft. … Cizikas' goal was his 10th of the season, an NHL career high. … The Islanders were without forwards Jordan Eberle (stiffness) and Cal Clutterbuck (lower body), and defenseman Thomas Hickey (upper body). … It was Bailey's first goal in 14 games.

What's next

Senators: Host the Washington Capitals on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; SN360, CITY, NBCSWA+, NHL.TV)
Islanders: At the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, CBC, SN1, MSG+, NHL.TV)