NEW YORK -- The New York Islanders recently have been accumulating points and climbing the standings with their best player attempting to navigate a scoring slump.

That changed Sunday, as center John Tavares broke a four-game point drought with his 13th goal of the season during the Islanders' 4-0 dismantling of the New Jersey Devils at Barclays Center.

Defenseman Marek Zidlicky scored twice against his former team and backup goaltender Thomas Greiss earned a shutout with 27 saves as the Islanders won for the seventh time in eight games and improved to 8-0-2 in their past 10 contests.

The odd part of this surge is the minimal impact had by Tavares, who has just three goals and an assist over those 10 games.

"I've had some games where I've been good and some games where I need to be a lot better and more consistent," said Tavares, who has 23 points in 28 games. "When you get your opportunities, you have to put them in. I probably could have had a couple more today."

The schedule afforded the Devils an opportunity to pounce on a potentially weary Islanders team that played in Columbus on Saturday night. Instead, the Islanders jumped the Devils for two goals during the opening 12 minutes of the first period and chased goaltender Cory Schneider with a third goal by left winger Matt Martin at 7:28 of the second period.

The loss was especially disappointing for the Devils, who had a come-from-behind 3-2 overtime win Friday against the Detroit Red Wings.

"You never want to leave a game," said Schneider who allowed three goals on 18 shots. "I didn't feel bad, to be honest. I felt fine. I felt I could have stayed in. But it's coach's call. Sometimes you do that to shake things up. Bottom line is, we weren't good enough from the goal line out tonight as a team, myself included."

Zidlicky spent parts of four seasons with the Devils before he was dealt to Detroit at last season's trade deadline. He came back to haunt his former club by opening the scoring 7:43 of the first period and notching the Islanders' fourth goal with 42.5 seconds remaining in the second period against backup goaltender Keith Kinkaid.

Both of Zidlicky's goals were booming slap shots, the first coming one second after a power play expired.

"It just happened," Zidlicky said of his second and third goals of the season. "You can't pick the team (to score against). I was a little bit lucky tonight."

The 29-year-old Greiss is in the midst of a career season with a 9-3-2 record, 2.03 goals-against average and .933 save percentage. He has never played more than 25 games in a season during his NHL career, a number he's sure to eclipse barring injury.

"It's always nice when you get to play a little more," Greiss said. "It's way easier. You get in a groove, your timing is just way better and you can see the puck better."

The Islanders (18-8-5) passed the slumping New York Rangers for second place in the Metropolitan and sit one point behind the Washington Capitals, who have played three fewer games.

The Devils (15-11-4) have a tenuous hold on the final wild-card spot in the East despite not having won consecutive games in a month.

"It's not acceptable," Devils defenseman Andy Greene said. "If we want to catch these teams that are ahead of us, we have to play well against them and get points. They played real well and we were not very good."

The comfortable win was also a nice change of pace for the Islanders, who had just two wins by more than one goal over this 10-game streak, and both of those two-goal victories were the result of empty-net goals late in the game. The regulation win also ended a streak of five straight games in which the Islanders went to overtime.

"I don't know if it so much that we had the overtime games," Tavares said. "We wanted to establish our game early. For whatever reason, he had our legs right at the get-go. The good part was not only were we able to come out hard, we were able to sustain it for a full 60."

NOTES: Devils C Travis Zajac missed his fifth straight game with an upper-body injury. ... Devils C Adam Henrique (lower body) did not play and is considered day-to-day. ... Islanders C Ryan Strome (upper body) did not play after leaving Saturday's game with an injury. ... Islanders RW Steve Bernier was back in the lineup after missing time with an upper-body injury. He had not played since Nov. 25. ... Islanders RW Cal Clutterbuck and D Marek Zidlicky were back in the lineup after sitting Saturday in Columbus.