COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Islanders’ previous game against the Blue Jackets marked the reconstruction of their top two lines.
Coach Barry Trotz has seen no reason to shuffle those trios since. Especially not with Brock Nelson and Anders Lee continuing to produce at a high rate.
Nelson had a goal and an assist and Lee added two assists as the Islanders opened a home-and-home series against the Blue Jackets by hanging on for a 4-3 win on Tuesday night at Nationwide Arena. The Islanders nearly let a three-goal, second-period lead slip.
The teams meet again on Thursday night at UBS Arena.
The Islanders (29-27-9) snapped a two-game losing streak but remain distant from the playoff chase. They will be eliminated with any combination of 17 points either lost by them or gained by the Capitals, who hold the Eastern Conference’s final wild-card spot.
The Blue Jackets (32-30-5), without injured top defenseman Zach Werenski as well as coach Brad Larsen (COVID-19 protocol), are in a 1-3-2 slide and, like the Islanders, almost certainly not playoff bound.
Semyon Varlamov made 42 saves and, with Ilya Sorokin sidelined with an upper-body injury, is likely to start consecutive games for the first time this season on Thursday.
Varlamov had to work hard to keep the Islanders ahead in the third period as the Blue Jackets continually pressured and kept the play up ice. That included a game-saving arm save on Gustav Nyquist’s power-play shot with the Blue Jackets skating six-on-four at 17:43.
Elvis Merzlikins stopped 25 shots for the Blue Jackets.
The Islanders are 8-3-1 dating to a 6-0 win over the Blue Jackets at UBS Arena on March 10. That’s when Trotz first put Nelson between Lee and Anthony Beauvillier while moving Jean-Gabriel Pageau between Josh Bailey and Kyle Palmieri on the second line.
Nelson and Lee have been the Islanders’ most consistent producers. Nelson now has 11 goals and six assists in the 12 games since the previous win over the Blue Jackets. Lee has nine goals and eight assists, starting with his first career hat trick in the 6-0 victory.
Palmieri has four goals and four assists and Bailey has five goals and four assists. But Palmieri and Bailey only have 11 and eight goals, respectively, all season.
The Blue Jackets took a 1-0 lead at 7:20 of the first period as defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov deposited the rebound of Patrik Laine’s blast. Gavrikov also pulled the Blue Jackets within 4-2 with a backhander at 13:32 of the second period.
But Nelson, extending his goal streak to four with his 13th goal in 14 games — plus career goal No. 200 — connected from a sharp-angle, power-play one-timer from the right to tie it at 1 at 11:47 of the first period.
Pageau then set up Bailey’s goal off a transition rush at 15:09 of the first period to give the Islanders a 2-1 lead after Bailey created a turnover in the neutral zone. Bailey, with his 543rd career point, moved past Bob Bourne for ninth place on the Islanders’ all-time list. He’s one short of matching John Tonelli for eighth place.
Nelson nearly scored a second in the second period on another sharp-angle try but his shot went off the crossbar. However, it deflected directly to Beauvillier, who made it 3-1 at 3:47. Defenseman Noah Dobson’s pinpoint pass from the top of the right circle to Zach Parise at the far post gave the Islanders a 4-1 lead at 9:10 of the second period.
Oliver Bjorkstrand’s unassisted goal brought the Blue Jackets within 4-3 at 4:30 of the third period.
