NEW YORK — Mathew Barzal had two goals and an assist to help the New York Islanders rally for a 6-3 win over the Ottawa Senators on Friday night.
Josh Bailey had a goal and an assist, and Anders Lee, Johnny Boychuk and Casey Cizikas also scored for New York, which came back from a pair of two-goal deficits to win for the fifth time in six games.
Thomas Greiss gave up three goals on 17 shots before he was pulled 6:11 into the second period. Robin Lehner, who began his career with Ottawa, came on and stopped all 10 shots he faced to improve to 7-0-3 against his former team.
Mark Stone, Matt Duchene and Cody Ceci scored for Ottawa, which has lost six of eight (2-5-1). Mike McKenna finished with 33 saves as the Senators fell to 4-13-1 on the road.
The Islanders trailed 2-0 early in the second and 3-1 later in the middle period. New York then scored the last five goals, including four in the third.
Boychuk tied the score 3-3 at 2:57 of the third as he fired a slap shot from the right point. It was his second of the season, with both goals coming in his last four games.
Barzal, who got his team-leading 25th assist earlier in the game, gave the Islanders their first lead of the night as he got a pass from Leo Komarov and beat McKenna from the right circle at 4:51.
Barzal made it 5-3 after a giveaway by the Senators in the neutral zone, beating McKenna from the inside edge of the right circle for his seventh with 7:36 left.
Cizikas added an empty-netter with 54 seconds left for his career-high 10th.
The game got chippy late with several fights, including pushing and shoving after the final buzzer.
Leading 1-0 after one period, the Senators doubled their lead on the power play early in the second as Duchene beat Greiss for his 15th at 2:47. It was Duchene’s third goal in three games since missing six games with an injury.
The Islanders got on the scoreboard a little more than 20 seconds later after a giveaway by the Senators. McKenna played the puck behind his goal to the right and tried to send it up along the right side boards, However, Barzal got the puck in the left circle, passed across to Bailey on the right side and he put it in before McKenna could slide over at 3:11.
Ceci restored the Senators’ two-goal lead exactly 3 minutes later skating up the right side and beating Greiss from the right circle for his fifth.
That ended Greiss’ night as Islanders coach Barry Trotz replaced him with Lehner, and Ottawa didn’t score again.
The Islanders pulled within one again after another giveaway by the Senators in their own zone. McKenna got the puck behind his net, passed to Ben Harpur in the left corner, but Harpur’s pass to Nick Paul went off Paul’s stick in the right circle. Lee got the puck and beat McKenna for his 14th with 2:32 to go in the period.
Stone got the Senators on the scoreboard late in the first period, taking advantage of a giveaway by the Islanders in their own zone, beating Greiss from the left circle for his 17th with 3:42 left. It gave Stone eight goals and 17 points in his last 15 games.
NOTES: Ceci appeared in his 400th career game, becoming the fifth defenceman and 19th player in franchise history to reach that milestone. … Stone now has five goals and 11 points in 13 career games against the Islanders … Duchene has 11 goals and 25 points in his last 18 games. … The Islanders won two of the three meetings last season as the road team won each time. The teams play twice more this season, on March 5 at Nassau Coliseum and March 7 at Ottawa. … Islanders F Jordan Eberle sat out due to soreness. … Lehner was drafted by Ottawa in second round of 2009 draft, and went 30-36-13 in five seasons with the Senators.
UP NEXT
Senators: Host Washington on Saturday night
Islanders: At Toronto on Saturday night for the first matchup against former captain John Tavares.
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Vin A. Cherwoo, The Associated Press
