Defense falls apart as Islanders beat Rangers
By Kenny Belvin
FINAL SCORE: New York Rangers – 2 New york Islanders – 6
FIRST PERIOD: It’s hard to say that the fourth game of the season is a must win game. However the way things went for the Rangers the last two games it’s hard to argue otherwise. The Rangers skated onto the ice at Madison Square Garden ice tonight looking to win a game against a very tough New York Islanders team. The Rangers came out fast and hard much like they did during Sunday’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, and they were rewarded at 6:21 gone by in the first period Rick Nash scored his fifth goal in four games to give the Rangers an early 1-0 lead. At 9:43 in the period Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh took an interference penalty and sent the Islanders to the power play where Johnny Boychuk scored to tie the game at one. The game was a fairly even pace after that point with both teams taking their turns dominating the play. At 17:49 Marc Staal took a tripping penalty and 30 seconds later Boychuk took an interference penalty and 30 seconds after that Nash took a tripping penalty which would lead into the second period. The period ended and the game was tied 1-1 and the shots were 12-11 in favor of the Islanders.
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SECOND PERIOD: The second period started off and after all the penalties came off of the board the Rangers got to work pressuring the Islanders. After some time the Rangers got the luck they were looking for when Chris Kreider passed the puck to Derick Brassard who was standing in front of the net to tap it in and give the Rangers a 2-1 lead. There are a couple of things for the Rangers that stuck out in particular this period, one of them was Kevin Hayes, the young center-man played well but struggled a little on trying to figure out when to shoot and when to pass the puck. The Islanders took two penalties in this period and the Rangers took one all of which were killed off by both teams. Jaroslav Halak was a big story in this period and if it wasn’t for him the Islanders would be down at least three goals. At 15:03 of the second period Mike Kostka left a horrible turnover near the net that found its way to John Tavares who scored to tie the game at 2. The period came to an end and the game was tied at two. The shots at the end of the period were 32-20 in favor of the Rangers.
THIRD PERIOD: This period was a total mess for the Rangers. Less than a minute in Kyle Okposo scored a quick goal off of another defensive turnover to give the Islanders a quick lead. At 4:50 in the period Brock Nelson scored a goal to increase the Islanders cushion to 4-2. From that moment on you could tell the game was pretty much over as the Islanders completely took over. The fifth goal came 30 seconds after Nelson’s goal when Mikhail Grabovski took a shot that deflected off of Kevin Klein‘s stick and into the net past Lundqvist. Later in the period Nick Leddy scored a sixth goal and the crowd at MSG started heading for the exits. The period went on and with two minutes left in the game Nash scored his second of the night and 6th of the season to cut the lead to three goals. The Rangers ended with a 43-27 shot advantage.