Islanders turn in effort worthy of a playoff contender to beat Blue Jackets in critical game

At least one team in Columbus didn’t have anything to celebrate on Monday.In what amounted to a must-win game for the Islanders against a Blue Jackets team they are chasing in the wild-card race (that is, if one believes the Islanders are still in the wild-card race at all), they put together the kind of 60-minute effort that was missing earlier in this homestand to win 3-1 at UBS Arena.This was the sort of effort which, if the Islanders could replicate it consistently, makes them look like a playoff contender.Just like Saturday against the Sharks, the Isles hounded pucks and forechecked hard all night while their top six played up to their billing — in particular the Mathew Barzal-Bo Horvat combination, with Barzal twice feeding Horvat for goals.There was also a strong effort on special teams, with the Isles scoring a power-play goal and getting a net-zero night on the penalty kill, with a shorthanded tally to make up for Columbus snapping the Isles’ scoreless streak on the PK.The four-on-five effort was the linchpin of a tight defensive effort in front of Ilya Sorokin, who stopped 24 of 25 shots, with the Islanders rarely allowing anything inside.The only downside on the night was a potential injury to Noah Dobson, who left the game early in the third period after taking a hit from Cole Sillinger and did not return.Quietly, the Islanders have won five of their last seven games — it just hasn’t translated to making up ground in the standings, in part because the two losses have come against other teams ahead of them.Even after a four-point game against the Blue Jackets, they’re still seven points back of the second wild-card spot.Still, it’s not really up for debate that the Islanders have played some of their best hockey of the season since the new year.Case in point, the second period on Monday.Down 1-0 on Kent Johnson’s power-play goal in the first, the Islanders bore down and got to work.

Horvat’s line with Barzal and Anders Lee was dominant,...