UNIONDALE Authentic Jonathan Toews Jersey , N.Y. (AP) — The New York Islanders are dominating opponents with a smothering defense and timely scoring.They executed that winning formula to perfection on Sunday against the Anaheim Ducks.Cal Clutterbuck scored twice in the first period and Robin Lehner made 19 saves for his third shutout this season as the Islanders downed the Ducks 3-0 on Sunday for their fifth straight win.The victory was the 15th in 18 games for the Metropolitan Division-leading Islanders, who have surged past Washington and Columbus over the past month. The Islanders have one game remaining — Tuesday at Chicago — before the All-Star break.“We came out with a lot of energy. We work hard and frustrate the other team,” said Lehner, who continued his sterling comeback season, improving to 15-7-3. “You have to set the tone and there’s no reason to deviate now. We are playing our game.”Clutterbuck opened the scoring at 4:50 of the first with a power-play goal. The 31-year-old forward completed a slick passing sequence by whipping the puck from the slot past former Islanders goaltender Chad Johnson. It was the sixth straight game in which the Islanders scored first as they improved to 5-1-1 this season at their former full-time home, Nassau Coliseum.Josh Bailey and Anthony Beauviller assisted. Bailey moved past Bob Nystrom on the team’s all-time assist list with 279 and into a tie with Pat LaFontaine for 12th place. Bailey, who is tied with captain Anders Lee for second on the team in points with 37, has three goals and three assists in last seven games.Clutterbuck scored again from a nearly identical spot midway through the first for his sixth goal of the season.“There’s a lot of confidence in the way we are playing and it’s nice to get a couple,” Clutterbuck said. “It’s an affirmation that the style we have and the work we’ve been putting in is a winning structure.”Clutterbuck, in his sixth season with the Islanders, also scored in Friday’s 2-0 win at Washington, which moved the Islanders past the Capitals into the division lead. The Islanders are also 25-2-1 when scoring three or more goals this season.“It’s fun right now,” Clutterbuck said, “but there’s still a long way to go.”Leo Komarov scored his sixth this season with 29 seconds remaining in the second period.The Islanders are 12-2-0 since rookie defenseman Devon Toews, who assisted on Komarov’s goal, joined the lineup for the first time on Dec 23.Lehner, who leads the league with a 2.02 goals-against average, won for the 11th time his last 12 games. The 27-year-old Swede has been a revelation since he signed a one-year free-agent contract with the Islanders last summer after he was let go by the Buffalo Sabres.“The defense is just helping me out and working hard Custom Minnesota Wild Jerseys ,” he said.The Islanders have allowed one goal or fewer 16 times this season, including each of their last four games. They have surrendered two goals or fewer in nine of their last 12.“The last three games have been amazing — Jersey, Washington, we have really suffocated them,” Lehner said.The Islanders held the Capitals and Devils to less than 20 shots in their previous two wins, and then did it again against the Ducks, who came in with a two-game winning streak after losing their previous 12.“We did some good things but we didn’t do a lot of generating off the rush,” Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. “We were trying to force things and we lacked execution.”NOTES: The Islanders scratched F Tom Kuhnhackl, F Ross Johnston and D Luca Sbisa. … Anaheim scratched Ds Michael Del Zotto and Andre Sustr and F Justin Kloos. … The Ducks won this season’s previous meeting, 4-1, on Oct. 17 at Anaheim.UP NEXTIslanders: Visit the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night before the All-Star break.Ducks: Host the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday before the All-Star break. UNIONDALE, N.Y. — The first game of the season between the New York Islanders and Columbus Blue Jackets matches two Metropolitan Division contenders in a clash that could certainly impact the playoff picture come April.But everyone knows the main attraction Saturday night will not be the teams but the building in which they’re playing.The Islanders make their long-awaited return to Nassau Coliseum, which was the franchise’s home from the team’s debut in 1972 until the spring of 2015, when they host the Blue Jackets.Article continues below ...Both teams were off Friday after playing Thursday, when the Islanders fell to the host Boston Bruins 2-1 in a shootout and the Blue Jackets beat the visiting Minnesota Wild 4-2.The Blue Jackets (15-8-2) and Islanders (12-9-3) will enter Saturday separated by just five points. But the standings will be secondary for the first of the Islanders’ 21 scheduled games at their new/old home.As Islanders coach Barry Trotz walked into his post-practice press conference Friday afternoon, he began talking about the Coliseum before he even fielded a question.“It’s home,” Trotz said. “Guys are excited. They did a good job. Looking forward to tomorrow. I think everybody is.”Well, maybe not everybody. In typical John Tortorella fashion Patrick Kane Jersey , the Blue Jackets head coach — who spent dozens of nights in the cramped bowels of the Coliseum as the head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Rangers — was decidedly less nostalgic when talking about the Coliseum earlier Friday.“I’m anxious to see the renovations,” Tortorella told reporters in Columbus. “I hope they put, in the coaches’ room, instead of a 40-watt bulb, they put in maybe a 75-watt bulb because you couldn’t see.”Everyone figured Nassau Coliseum — long a relic among NHL arenas for reasons well beyond its damp and darkened locker rooms — was finally and officially a thing of the past when the Islanders moved to Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the 2015-16 season.But Islanders fans, most of whom reside on Long Island, never warmed to the idea of taking oft-delayed trains or enduring traffic jam-filled commutes to Brooklyn. Nor did they enjoy the lack of atmosphere at Barclays Center, which was built for basketball and “features” an off-center scoreboard as well as thousands of obstructed view seats behind one of the goals.In three-plus seasons at Barclays Center, the Islanders have never ranked higher than 28th in the NHL in average attendance.Nor did players, most of whom also reside on Long Island, ever really embrace the commute or the substandard conditions. The Barclays ice is known as the softest in the league because the building is heated by plastic pipes, not metal pipes, and to refit the building with metal pipes would require closing the arena during the summer concert season.The Islanders began plotting their return to Long Island last December, when owners Jon Ledecky and Scott Malkin won a bid to build an arena on state land currently housing the Belmont race track at the Nassau/Queens border.In January, the Islanders announced they would split their schedules between Barclays Center and a refurbished Nassau Coliseum, which is operated by the same management company as Barclays Center, until they are ready to move into the new arena at the start of the 2021-22 season.While nothing is official, it is widely believed the Islanders will play their entire home schedule at the Coliseum starting next season. The new Coliseum only seats 13 www.montrealcanadiensteamshops.com ,000, but a packed Coliseum will look much better than a nearly-empty Barclays, where this year’s average announced attendance of 10,447 said one thing and the eye test scanning acres of empty seats said another.“I think the guys that have played in this building have really great memories of it,” Trotz said. “I think everybody recognizes that it has great significance on the Island and for its fan base.”There’s a little bit of serendipity to Saturday’s festivities. The Blue Jackets were the opponent for the Islanders’ supposed regular-season finale at the Coliseum on April 11, 2015, when Columbus posted a 5-4 shootout victory.And Trotz, in his first year as New York’s head coach, was the head coach for the Washington Capitals during the supposed final game at the Coliseum on April 25, 2015, when the Islanders extended an Eastern Conference quarterfinal series to a decisive seventh game with a 3-1 win.Cal Clutterbuck, who iced that win with an empty-netter in the final minute, is one of nine players from that team still with the Islanders. “I remember being at the press conference (at the Coliseum) for the Belmont announcement and talking about potentially coming back here for some games and here we are,” Clutterbuck said. “So it’s exciting.”