Columbus Blue Jackets right wing Kirill Marchenko (86) looks to pass during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Vegas Golden Knights, Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Joe Maiorana)
December 28, 2025 - 11:12 AM
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Columbus Blue Jackets scored a pair of third-period goals in just over a minute and rallied to beat the New York Islanders 4-2 on Sunday for their second straight win.
Kirill Marchenko scored his second goal of the night with 3:19 left in the game, just over a minute after Ivan Provorov knotted the score at 2-2. Cole Sillinger added an empty-netter, and Denton Mateychuk and Sean Monahan both had two assists. Jet Greaves stopped 24 shots.
Max Shabanov and Bo Horvat scored for New York, and David Rittich made 31 saves for the Islanders, who seemed to have the win in hand but instead dropped the first game of their two-stop road trip to end 2025.
Marchenko buried a breakaway at 8:09 of the first period to open the scoring, and Shabanov pulled the Islanders even with 2:44 left in the period when a puck deflected off his knee and slid past Greaves.
The second period started in chaos when Mat Barzal reacted to a Mason Marchment tripping penalty by taking a two-handed chop to Marchment’s right foot, resulting in a major penalty and a game misconduct ejection. Columbus then failed to score on a 3-on-4 power play following Adam Pelech’s tripping penalty on Miles Wood.
Horvat gave New York the lead with 6:36 left in the second period on a wrist shot that marked his first goal since missing five games with a lower-body injury.
Columbus fought back to tie the score on Provorov’s goal with 4:33 left in the third period before Marchenko put the Blue Jackets ahead and Sillinger sealed the win.
Up next
Islanders visit Chicago on Tuesday.
Blue Jackets visit Ottawa on Monday.
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