Blue Jackets cruise past Islanders, get 6th straight victory to end season

COLUMBUS -- Jet Greaves made 36 saves to help the Columbus Blue Jackets win their sixth straight game, 6-1 against the New York Islanders at Nationwide Arena on Thursday.

It was the season finale for each team.

Cole Sillinger and Zach Werenski each had a goal and an assist for the Blue Jackets (40-33-9), who scored five goals in the second period. Greaves won his fifth straight start since being an emergency recall from Cleveland of the American Hockey League on April 10 because of an upper-body injury to Elvis Merzlikins.

“It's been a lot of good experience for me, playing this many games in a short stretch,” Greaves said. “I've learned a lot from that aspect of it. It's just been a fun experience to be playing meaningful games this time of year in the NHL. You have to play in these games to gain that experience.”

Columbus was the final team eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention when the Montreal Canadiens clinched the second wild card from the Eastern Conference with a 4-2 win against the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday.

“This is the closest we've been and not made it since I've been here,” Werenski said. “Definitely disappointing waking up today. We knew it'd be special tonight. It was pretty emotional here in a lot of ways. No better way to end up than in front of our fans here tonight.”

Hudson Fasching scored, and Marcus Hogberg made 20 saves for the Islanders (35-35-12), who already had been eliminated from playoff contention.

“Games like this, it’s about love of the game and pride and that’s what you want to see,” New York coach Patrick Roy said. “We gave too many chances and obviously Marcus might not have had his best night.

“So, put it all together. You have to be there for your goalie when he's not on top of his night.”

Sillinger put Columbus in front 1-0 with an unassisted goal at 2:21 of the second. He stole the puck in the offensive zone and scored with a wrist shot from the left face-off circle.

Dante Fabbro made it 2-0 at 7:43 with his second goal in as many games. Jordan Harris kept the puck in the zone and passed to Fabbro for a wrist shot from near the right wall.

“If you play for the Columbus Blue Jackets, you play team first,” Columbus coach Dean Evason said. “You play for each other. You play hard every night. They play the right way every night, and they play hard, and that's how we're going to continue to play.”

Dmitri Voronkov extended the lead to 3-0 at 10:09 after a Werenski pass deflected off the stick of Islanders defenseman Scott Perunovich and then Voronkov’s skate. Werenski got his 59th assist to tie Artemi Panarin for the most in a season by a Blue Jackets player (2018-19).

“We made a huge step forward with the team, almost made the playoffs, and feel like this season was successful from that standpoint,” Voronkov said. “We have young players. We have a group of people who are older, but it's never boring. It's a lot of fun in the locker room.”

Sean Kuraly made it 4-0 at 15:14, scoring from the right circle on the rush.

Werenski then pushed the lead to 5-0 at 17:27 on a 3-on-1, scoring from low in the right circle off a Sean Monahan pass.

Fasching cut it to 5-1 from the top of the slot at 14:48 of the third period to end Greaves’ shutout streak at 173:38. He was going for his second straight shutout and third in four games.

“He moved really well tonight,” Islanders captain Anders Lee said. “He got across his crease really well and he was just really solid -- not a lot of rebounds. We tested him a few times, and he was just there, solid. Not too many secondary chances and for the most part they played they played pretty clean in front of him.”

Adam Fantilli extended his goal streak to four games (six goals) at 18:37 for the 6-1 final.

New York went 1-3-2 in its final six games.

“Everyone has to go home and get themselves right for the fall and get ready to go after this thing again,” Lee said.

NOTES: The Blue Jackets had scored 15 straight goals at home over three games before Fasching scored. … Columbus forward Jack Williams played 11:09 and was 5-for-11 on face-offs in his NHL debut. He was signed as a free agent from Northeastern University on March 25. … Islanders forward Kyle Palmieri had two shots on goal and played 17:30 in his 900th NHL game, and New York forward Simon Holmstrom played 14:56 with three blocked shots in his 200th.