Isles beat up Devils

Jordan Eberle scored twice, Mathew Barzal notched a goal and two assists and Semyon Varlamov stopped 30 shots as the Islanders beat the Devils, 4-1, on Thursday night.

The Islanders improved to 3-1-0, while the Devils lost for the first time in regulation, falling to 2-1-1.

Varlamov has all three Islanders’ wins, allowing only one goal. That came early in the second period by forward Nathan Bastian, who ended Varlamov’s season-opening shutout streak at 142 minutes and 10 seconds, the eighth-longest in NHL history to begin a season.

Barzal opened the scoring with his second goal of the season at 4:43 of the first. Josh Bailey and Noah Dobson had assists.

Eberle made it 2-0 at 19:39 of the first, beating goalie Scott Wedgewood with a backhand off a feed from Anders Lee. Barzal had the other assist.

Wedgewood started in place of Mackenzie Blackwood, who was placed on the COVID-19 protocol list before the game. Blackwood had started each of the Devils’ first three games. Wedgewood was playing his first NHL game since Feb. 13, 2018, when he was with the Arizona Coyotes. He made 31 saves.

Bastian narrowed the deficit at 2:10 of the second with his first goal of the season. Rookie defenseman Ty Smith assisted on the goal. Smith has points in each of the first four games of his career and became the 11th defenseman in NHL history to achieve that feat.

Eberle made it 3-1 with a power-play goal at 1:56 of the third with Devils forward Travis Zajac in the penalty box. Eberle’s second goal of the game and season came after Dobson’s shot from the point ricocheted off the boards to Eberle below the right circle. Barzal also assisted.

Nelson added another power-play goal at 5:16 of the third with a clean tip-in of a Nick Leddy point shot.