For 82 seconds in the second period Saturday night, the Islanders held a lead. They had fought back from an early slumber to go up by a goal on the Blue Jackets, only to have it vanish and become a deficit again minutes later.
It made their second comeback to take a second lead — and then actually hold onto it — all the more rewarding.
Brock Nelson scored the winner at 5:14 of the third period and the Islanders buckled down for a white-knuckle ride from there to earn a crucial 4-3 win over the Blue Jackets at Barclays Center.
“It was a grindy win,” rookie center Mathew Barzal said. “It took everything.”
The Islanders (26-22-5) snapped a two-game skid that felt longer after they were crushed 9-1 over back-to-back nights coming out of the All-Star break. Saturday’s game had extra significance as it came against the Blue Jackets (27-21-4), one of the teams the Islanders are chasing in the Metropolitan Division for a playoff spot.
“Tonight was a big game,” said winger Jordan Eberle, who tied the game 3-3 at 2:49 into the third period. “It was a turnaround game for us.”
Nelson’s strike — only his second since Dec. 11 — came just after an Islanders power play expired and it sent the home crowd into a frenzy. Ryan Pulock fired a slap shot that Columbus goalie Joonas Korpisalo denied, but Andrew Ladd collected the rebound out front. He calmly slid the puck over to Nelson, who stopped it with his skate and tucked it away for the goal.
But it was Islanders netminder Jaroslav Halak (46 saves) who earned first-star honors, surviving a first-period barrage and then sealing the win by turning away a flurry of Blue Jackets shots on a late power play.
“We’re not sitting here right now feeling good if Jaro doesn’t have that first period,” coach Doug Weight said. “He was the only one that got the memo that it was a 7 o’clock start. He was good, we owe him.”
Halak was under siege again Saturday, a common theme in recent weeks. The league average for a team is 31.8 shots per game, but the Islanders haven’t allowed under that number since Dec. 19. They surpassed that mark at 9:36 of the second period Saturday night, thanks in part to a 26-shot first period.
“I think it’s even better for a goalie when they shoot a lot of pucks,” Halak said. “Obviously that was too many in the first period, but we just found a way to get two points. That’s a really huge boost for our team.”
The Islanders took their first lead of the night, 2-1, when Josh Bailey redirected a slap shot from Anthony Beauvillier at 11:14 of the second period. But two turnovers later, from Bailey and Scott Mayfield, the Blue Jackets were back up 3-2.
“Everyone’s talking about shots and goals and this and that,” Weight said. “Who cares? Just play the game and buckle down, win battles.”
The Islanders escaped the first period lucky to be tied at one, but got an earful during the intermission. A day after Weight sat his team down for a tough-love film session, they came out and made the same mistakes in the opening 20 minutes.
“I told the coaches that I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown sitting at my desk [after the first period],” Weight said. “I had my head in my hands. [Assistant coach Luke Cronin] went in with the understanding of calm, collected, ‘Are you guys serious with what we’ve talked about?’ And about three minutes later, it looked like he had a tomato on his neck so he was screaming at them.”
Thanks to Halak, though, they hung around long enough to come back twice and win it.
“Tired. I feel tired,” Halak said. “Time to get some sleep.”