Rangers rout Islanders 9-2, keep slim playoff hopes alive
Where’ve these New York Rangers been hiding?
One night after a terrible 8-5 loss at home to the Philadelphia Flyers, the Rangers routed the New York Islanders 9-2 at UBS Arena on Thursday, keeping their slim playoff hopes alive for at least another day.
Their tragic number remains one, meaning the Rangers could be eliminated from playoff contention Friday if the Montreal Canadiens pick up one point in their game against the Ottawa Senators.
“We’re still alive and we’re gonna keep fighting until the end. You never know what can happen,” Alexis Lafreniere said postgame.
The Rangers (37-35-7) scored a season-high nine goals against the Islanders after surrendering a season-worst eight goals against the Flyers. Brett Berard notched the first two-goal game of his NHL career and Artemi Panarin also scored twice as part of a three-point night.
Eleven Rangers skaters recorded at least one point, and 10 players had at least two. Juuso Parssinen scored his first goal with the Rangers and added two assists, and Adam Fox had three helpers.
Mika Zibanejad, Vincent Trocheck, Lafreniere and Will Cuylle each had a goal and an assist for the Rangers, who ended a three-game losing streak and finished a sweep of the four-game season series against the Islanders.
Though the score was lopsided, it shouldn’t be overlooked how outstanding Igor Shesterkin played for the Rangers. He made 44 saves, including 19 in the second period.
At the other end of the ice, Marcus Hogberg was not good at all, letting in a few softies and stopping just 22 of 30 shots. He took a brief spell on the bench in the third period, allowing rookie Tristan Lennox to make his NHL debut. Lennox gave up one goal on two shots for the Islanders, who were without No. 1 goalie Ilya Sorokin, who’s out with a lower-body injury.
Maxim Tsyplakov and Hudson Fasching scored the Islanders’ goals.
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New York Rangers 9 – New York Islanders 2
Led by their best players, the Rangers came out flying in the first period, scoring four times to jump out to dominating 4-0 lead.
It didn’t take long for the visitors to set the tone. J.T. Miller stole the puck at center ice and that started a pretty passing sequence which culminated in Zibanejad’s 18th goal of the season at 3:17. Inside the blue line, Cuylle dropped a pass between his legs for Miller, who then zipped a pass to Zibanejad on right wing. Zibanejad made no mistake with his shot and the Rangers were off and running, literally and figuratively.
That line came through again to make it 2-0 at 12:49. Cuylle drove hard down the middle to bury a rebound of Zibanejad’s shot, for his 19th goal. Cuylle overwhelmed Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock, who was caught flat-footed just above the crease, just another example of how the Rangers were a step ahead all period.
Things were going so well for the Rangers that they even scored a power-play goal to make it 3-0 at 13:51. That’s saying something considering the Rangers were 3-for-49 on the power play since March 3.
Trocheck scored the goal, his 24th, on a beautiful finish after taking a pass at the goal line and quickly getting to the net.
The Islanders finally woke up after the third Rangers goal. They had some good sustained pressure in the Rangers end, but Shesterkin made five saves in the stretch, beginning with sharp one against Pierre Engvall on an odd-man rush.
For good measure, the Rangers scored off their own odd-man rush before the period ended. This time Trocheck set up Panarin for his 36th goal into a wide-open net at 19:15.
Whatever Islanders coach Patrick Roy said — likely very loudly — between periods resonated with his team because they came out guns blazing to start the second period. The Islanders recorded the first eight shots and the Rangers barely sniffed the offensive zone for the first six minutes or so.
But it was the Rangers, not the Islanders, who scored the next goal. Parssinen scored on a wraparound at 8:17, a soft one allowed by Hogberg, to make it 5-0 Rangers.
It was an important goal for Parssinen. He was back in the lineup after being a healthy scratch six straight games and hadn’t scored a goal with the Rangers since they acquired him from the Colorado Avalanche before the trade deadline. In fact, it was his first point in nine games played with the Rangers.
Four minutes later, Shesterkin kept his shutout intact with a lightning-quick glove save to rob Fasching on a one-timer from 15 feet out. Not too long after that save, Shesterkin made an alert stop to bail out K’Andre Miller following an atrocious giveaway in front of his own net.
Fasching was stoned again at 16:30, when he flew down the middle and hammered a one-timer that was denied by Shesterkin’s pad.
The Islanders finally solved Shesterkin with their 18th shot of the second period. Tsyplakov wired a power-play goal from the right dot over Shesterkin’s glove at 19:07; but the Rangers carried a commanding 5-1 lead into the intermission.
The Rangers’ fourth line found its way on to the score sheet at 7:54 of the third period. Berard poked the puck out of his own end, and the Rangers were off to the races. Matt Rempe’s spin-o-rama pass into the middle caught Berard in the skates, but he picked the puck out from his feet and whipped a backhand shot past Hogberg to give the Rangers a 6-1 lead.
That was it for Hogberg, and on came Lennox to play in his first NHL game.
The Islanders quickly responded to the goalie change. They hit a post and then a couple minutes later, Fasching fired one past Shesterkin at 10:52.
But Berard answered back for the Rangers, beating Lennox five-hole with a right-wing shot off the rush at 12:35 to make it 7-2. Roy immediately put Hogberg back into the game, not that the goalie mattered to the Rangers on this night.
Lafreniere added a goal at 15:54, roofing one off the rush over Hogberg’s shoulder. Panarin banked one in off Hogberg from behind the goal line to close the scoring at 18:49. It was a fitting end to a brutal night for the Islanders goalie.
A rare laugher for the Rangers was much welcomed. But after a day off Friday, the Rangers are right back at it Saturday afternoon in Raleigh, when they face off against the Carolina Hurricanes. And they either will or won’t be playing to keep their slimmest of slim playoff hopes alive, again, for another day.
“We’re still in it. Maybe it’s in other teams’ hands now, but we still gotta do our part,” Berard concluded.
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