Columbus shuts down Islanders
Sergei Bobrovsky recorded his second consecutive shutout and the Columbus Blue Jackets stayed in the NHL playoff hunt, beating the New York Islanders 4-0 Tuesday night.
Ryan Dzingel, Artemi Panarin, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Cam Atkinson scored, and Bobrovsky finished with 26 saves and his eighth shutout of the season for the Blue Jackets, who are fighting to get above the wild-card line in the Eastern Division with six games to play.
They started the day two points behind Montreal for the second Eastern Division wild-card spot and three points behind Carolina for the first. The Canadiens and Blue Jackets face off in Columbus on Thursday night.
Thomas Greiss, who had shut out Columbus twice this season, finished with 29 saves.
The Blue Jackets took advantage of a couple of New York mistakes to help salvage a win in the last of the four-game season series between the Metro Division rivals.
Dzingel scored with a snipe over Greiss’ head 5:43 into the game from the left circle. That came near the end of a power play brought about by the Islanders having too many men on the ice.
Panarin got his first goal in 13 games early in the second when Cam Atkinson batted at the puck in the neutral zone and pushed it behind the Islanders’ defense. Panarin picked it up and beat Greiss on the breakaway.
Bjorkstrand scored his second goal in as many games with 8:46 remaining, and Atkinson added an empty-netter with 27 seconds left.
Washington 4, Carolina 1: Alex Ovechkin scored his NHL-leading 49th goal of the season to snap a four-game drought and help the Washington Capitals beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1 to increase their division lead. Ovechkin snapped a shot past Petr Mrazek for the go-ahead goal 4:31 into the third period for his third goal in 10 games.
Sabres sign Fitzgerald: The Buffalo Sabres have signed Casey Fitzgerald to a two-year $1.85 million entry-level contract after the defenseman completed his senior season at Boston College. Fitzgerald will initially sign an amateur tryout contract and report to Buffalo’s American Hockey League affiliate in Rochester, N.Y.