Putting the drama of the NHL Trade Deadline behind them, the New York Rangers recovered from a blip to stun the New York Islanders in overtime on Tuesday at the Nassau Coliseum.
In what was the finale of the Battle of New York, the New York Rangers again showed the will to battle through and pick up what was a huge W.
The Blueshirts also spoiled the debut of Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who did score in his first game as an Islander.
And, while it wasn’t a perfectly-executed game from the Blueshirts, they found a way to gut out the win and that is an impressive and important hallmark of any contending team.
It was a good start for the Rangers, though, as Artemi Panarin one-timed a delicious feed from Ryan Lindgren past Semyon Varlamov at the end of the first period.
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Gregg McKegg, who has proved to be a useful role player for the Blueshirts, redirected a shot from the point from Brendan Lemieux to put his team in the driving seat.
The Islanders had dominated the Rangers, though, holding a 31-20 shot advantage, boasting an 18-6 High-Danger chances for advantage and a 3.07 xGF (per NaturalStatTrick).
So, it wasn’t a surprise when Pageau marked his Islanders debut with a goal after taking advantage of a lucky bounce.
Brett Howden‘s eighth goal of the year at 9:34 in the third period did make it a two-goal game again, but the Islanders were banging on the door all game and they kicked it down emphatically.
The fightback started on the power play after Jordan Eberle showed slick hands to beat Alexandar Georgiev, before Brock Nelson made it a tied game with seconds remaining, redirecting a shot past Georgiev.
However, while the Rangers could have easily collapsed, they instead regained their composure and showed their newfound mental fortitude to deliver the ultimate gut punch.
With just 28 seconds on the board in overtime, Panarin showed his brilliance by dragging three Islanders players with him over to the boards, before feeding a pass over to Mika Zibanejad who absolutely hammered the game-winner past Varlamov.
It was a stunning play in what was a playoff-like atmosphere and contest, and it was a huge win for the New York Rangers.
While the Islanders may have been the better team and while they may have gripes over the officiating, good teams find a way to win even when they aren’t at their best and the Blueshirts created their own luck on Tuesday.
We had some takeaways from what was an exhilarating contest at the Nassau Coliseum…