New York Rangers vs New York Islanders: A 6-2 thrashing of their rivals

The New York Rangers played one of their most impressive games of the season as they dismantled the Islanders 6-2.  It was a dominant effort and should make the last two games of the series this week all the more interesting.

The New York Rangers withstood an early goal by the Islanders, stood up to their toughest players and seemingly scored at will in one of their more complete wins of the season.  In a season that has been full of ups and downs, the Blueshirts came back from one of their worst losses of the year to record one of their best.

After they jumped out to an early lead, the Islanders tried to intimidate the Rangers, but Micheal Haley and Brendan Smith didn’t back down.  From that point until  the middle of the second period, it was all Rangers as they scored three straight goals.  The Isles mounted a comeback, but it was Alexandar Georgiev‘s turn to stand tall and he stymied them repeatedly.

The third period was the Artemi Panarin show as he scored two breakaway goals, finishing with five points on the  night.  Jacob Trouba added a power play goal and the Rangers gave up a late power play goal in garbage time.

The forecheck was superb and the Rangers maintained their composure in the defensive zone.  Add the opportunistic scoring and it was a complete effort and the score reflected the game, one sided in favor of the Blueshirts.

In the end, the game belonged to Artemi Panarin as he notched yet another multi-point game and matched a career high.  He has 67 points this season, third best in the NHL, trailing only Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl and he has played two fewer games.   He is sixth in the NHL in both goals (26) and assists (41). He leads the league in even strength points with 52, ten more than Nathan MacKinnon.  He is tied for second with 1.49 points per game, only two hundredths of a point behind McDavid.