Thomas Greiss stopped all 31 shots he faced and Casey Cizikas continued his breakout season by scoring two breakaway goals Thursday night for the New York Islanders, who beat the host Columbus Blue Jackets 3-0 in a key Metropolitan Division matchup.

Josh Bailey scored in the second period for the Metropolitan-leading Islanders, who have won four of five and are 20-5-2 since Dec. 15. New York leads the Washington Capitals by three points.

The shutout was the career-high fourth for Greiss, who had three shutouts in 2016-17.

Cizikas, a fourth-liner who never scored more than nine goals in any of his first seven NHL seasons, has 15 goals in 2018-19. The two-goal game was the second of the season for Cizikas, who scored twice against the Montreal Canadiens on Nov. 5, and the third of his career.

Sergei Bobrovsky had 24 saves for the Blue Jackets, who missed a chance to at least momentarily tie the Capitals for second place, and fell seven points behind the Islanders.

Greiss started the Islanders' first breakaway in impressive fashion. After turning back a shot by Blue Jackets left winger Pierre-Luc Dubois, Greiss shoved the puck away with his stick. Cal Clutterbuck picked the puck up along the boards and passed to a streaking Cizikas at the Columbus blue line. Cizikas went in untouched, shuffled the puck and backhanded a shot past Bobrovsky at the 7:06 mark.

Another solid defensive play by the Islanders led to Cizikas' second breakaway goal. After Bailey broke up Nick Foligno's pass deep in the Blue Jackets' zone, Devin Toews picked up the loose puck and fired a pass that hit Cizikas in stride. The center bore in on Bobrovsky and beat him easily 5:50 into the second.

Bailey added an insurance goal with 41 seconds left in the period when he backhanded home a rebound of a shot by Tom Kuhnhackl.

The Blue Jackets' best chance to break the shutout came with 7:20 left in the third, when Greiss lunged across the crease and kicked away a shot by Cam Atkinson.

--Field Level Media