COLUMBUS, Ohio, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- Andrew Cassels and Lasse Pirjeta scored power-play goals in the first six minutes Saturday night and the Columbus Blue Jackets continued their domination of the New York Islanders with a 4-1 victory.
Mike Sillinger also scored on the power play in the third period for Columbus and Tyler Wright added an empty-netter to help the Blue Jackets improve to 4
1-0 all-time against the Islanders. New York is the only NHL team without a win against Columbus.
The Blue Jackets opened a quick three-goal lead in the last meeting between the teams and went on to a 4-2 win on Nov. 29 at the Nassau Coliseum.
Columbus again took control early in this one, using the power-play tallies by Cassels and Pirjeta to take a 2-0 lead in the first 5:52.
With Dave Scatchard off for high-sticking, Ray Whitney sent a cross-ice pass to Cassels, whose shot from the right faceoff circle beat Garth Snow to the glove side at 2:47 for his 14th goal.
After defenseman Roman Hamrlik was penalized for cross-checking, Pirjeta spun around, gained control of the puck and beat Snow with a high shot from the right circle.
The Islanders halved the deficit on a power-play goal by Arron Asham at 8:26 of the second. Asham skated from behind the net and stuffed his own rebound by Marc Denis, who made 29 saves.
Sillinger redirected Whitney's shot at 5:21 of the third before Wright capped the scoring with 68 seconds left.
The loss completed an up and down week for the Islanders, who were routed at home by the New York Rangers on Tuesday night before a surprising win in Philadelphia Friday evening.
New York also may have lost Scatchard after he was slammed face-first into the boards in the third period.
The Blue Jackets have won four of their last six home games to improve to 13-9-1-1 at Nationwide Arena.
