Islanders force overtime but lose to NHL-worst Blue Jackets

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Islanders were down two goals to the NHL’s worst team, which was playing two men short because of injuries. A chance to extend their lead for the Eastern Conference’s first wild-card spot was 20 minutes from disappearing.

Instead, they managed to take the game to overtime before Boone Jenner’s power-play goal 40 seconds in gave the Blue Jackets a 5-4 win and snapped the Islanders’ three-game winning streak.

Anders Lee had been called for an offensive-zone high sticking on Lane Pederson with 28.3 seconds left in regulation.

“We didn’t really come ready to play,” said Kyle Palmieri, whose tip of defenseman Adam Pelech’s shot brought the Islanders within 4-3 at 3:34 of the third period.

“We managed to get a point out of it, that’s about it. We know the importance of every game down the stretch. Things were just sloppy. We weren’t moving our feet. We weren’t able to really generate any speed through the neutral zone or coming out of our zone. It ends up being slow and on our heels.”

The Islanders (37-27-9), who will face the Sabres on Saturday at UBS Arena, lead the Penguins by three points in the wild-card race and the Panthers by four after both lost in regulation on Thursday.

Ilya Sorokin stopped 22 shots — the Blue Jackets scored four goals on eight shots in the second period — and Michael Hutchinson (34 saves) got his first win in seven appearances.

“It’s disappointing to leave one [point] on the table,” said Zach Parise, who, at 38, became the oldest Islander to reach 20 goals when he opened the scoring at 13:37 of the first period. “We played well in spurts.”

Brock Nelson’s second goal, a power-play one-timer from the right circle after Bo Horvat won an offensive-zone draw, tied it at 4-4 at 8:00 of the third.

“It felt like that even before the power play that we had quite a bit of momentum,” said Nelson, sporting a stitched-up cut over his blackened right eye but otherwise no damage after being run into the corner boards by Noel Acciari and exiting Tuesday’s 7-2 win over the visiting Maple Leafs in the first period.

“We thought we were going to be able to follow it up and get something done in regulation.”

The Blue Jackets (23-41-7) have been beset by injuries this season and entered Friday’s match with 454 man-games lost to injury. Leading goal-scorer Patrik Laine suffered a triceps injury while taking a shot during practice on Thursday and right wing Mathieu Olivier exited after blocking defenseman Ryan Pulock’s blast at 1:00 of the first period. Then defenseman Erik Gudbranson (upper body) exited in the second period.

Johnny Gaudreau’s power-play goal at 4:58 started the Blue Jackets’ second-period goal barrage after Kirill Marchenko’s apparent goal at 3:42 was overturned via coach Lane Lambert’s challenge for goalie interference on Jenner.

Nelson regained a 2-1 lead at 5:30 after Palmieri forced an offensive-zone turnover. But Liam Foudy beat defenseman Noah Dobson to the crease to tie it at 2-2 at 8:59.

Kent Johnson, with a “Michigan” goal — lifting the puck onto his stick and shoveling it over Sorokin as he came around to the left post — put the Blue Jackets ahead 3-2 at 17:46 of the second period. Eric Robinson, establishing position at the crease against defenseman Scott Mayfield, deflected Emil Bemstrom’s feed for a 4-2 lead just 40 seconds later.

“It took us too long to get to our game,” Lambert said. “There’s an unfortunate penalty and a power-play goal in overtime. Considering we were going into the third period down two, it was a big point to get.”

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.