The New York Islanders have been playing some of the best hockey all season long, and they’ve been doing it pretty much under the radar. On Tuesday night, after the All-Star Game, the Islanders took on their arch rivals, the New York Rangers at the Nassau Coliseum. On Tuesday, it was the Islanders who would come away victorious as they thumped the Rangers a by a score of 4-1.
In that first period, both goalies were peppered. Jaroslav Halak stopped all ten of the Rangers attempt on goal, despite getting some really good looks. With about four and a half minutes off of the clock, Rick Nash had was found in a ton of space just to the right of the side. He took his time to line up the puck and Halak did well to kick his right pad out to stop the shot.
Michael Grabner was really impressive for the Isles early on, seemingly getting shot after shot after shot. Three minutes after Nash’s wrister was stopped, the 27-year-old Austrian had his own slap shot stopped by Henrik Lundqvist.
Then the Islanders were starting to pull away, controlling the puck well and playing good defense. As time was winding down in the first twenty minutes, the Islanders pulled off one of the most beautiful team goals you will see all season long. John Tavares slid the puck across to Josh Bailey. Bailey found Johnny Boychuk who passed it right back to the stick of Bailey. Bailey found Mikhail Grabovski in front of goal and Grabovski simply tapped the puck in behind Lundqvist to open the scoring.
After the first intermission, the Isles came out firing. They doubled their lead within two and half minutes, putting the Rangers into a deep hole. The shots were more even this frame, the Islanders, however, were able to capitalize on their opportunities. There was a bit of luck with their third goal of the evening as a three on one break, with Calvin de Haan leading the way, turned into a goal that unfortunately bounced off of Ryan McDonagh’s stick after Ryan Strome tried to send a pass back the other way.
Goal number four for the home side would come as they went on a five on three power play with not much time remaining left in the game. The Islanders had been going glove side on Lundqvist all night long and it paid off once more. They worked the puck around up before Travis Hamonic found Tavares just to the right of the goal. He ripped the shot and the Ranger goalie was late reacting sealing his team’s fate for the evening.
The Rangers spoiled Halak’s party by getting on the scoreboard with just 8.1 seconds remaining left in the hockey game. Carl Hagelin beat Halak near side as he was inching closer and closer to the crease. You could tell that Halak really wanted that shutout, but it just wasn’t meant to be tonight.
Boston comes to town in two days and the New York Islanders will have to do battle against a very good Bruins team while the Rangers will go back to Madison Square Garden and take on the Montreal Canadiens the same night.