In a 4-1 win, the Rangers play their best to beat the best

The New York Rangers have had their ups and downs this season.  Thursday night was a down.  This game was one of their best ups this season.  They got timely goals, solid defense and stellar goaltending and ended up with a surprisingly “easy”  win.

The Rangers handed the Islanders only their second home loss this season.  They evened their season series at two games apiece.  Alexandar Georgiev hadn’t played a game in three weeks, but was very sharp and kept the Rangers in the game early.

Though Mika Zibanejad scored an empty net goal at the end of the game the offense came from the other lines, led by Artemi Panarin.  Colin Blackwell continued his torrid scoring and the kids line contributed with the important first goal.

The mantra from David Quinn was that the Rangers have done this before and they need to do it again and need to find that “consistency” that he always talks about.

Quinn did his part, letting the kids play as ice time was very evenly distributed and not just among the forwards.  K’Andre Miller had the most ice time of any Ranger, even more than Adam Fox. Artemi Panarin deservedly played 19:21.  No other forward had more than 17:20 and that was Colin Blackwell.

The distribution of ice time was helped by the fact that there was only one penalty called in the game, a soft first period boarding penalty against Mika Zibanejad.  This could easily have been a game played completely at even strength.

Here is a complete video recap of the game.

Notes on the game

Artemi Panarin resumed his hot scoring after being stopped by the Penguins. He had two assists, giving him four goals and nine assists in his last six games.

Colin Blackwell has scored six goals in seven games and has added one assist.  Blackwell is presenting the Rangers with quite a conundrum. He was signed to a two year contract so he could  be exposed in the Seattle expansion draft.  Now, he may be a keeper and that means the Rangers would need to expose another forward who has played in 27 games this season or 54 games last season and this season combined.   Right now, the list of players who conceivably be exposed is down to Brett Howden and Julien Gauthier. It will be an  interesting call for Jeff Gorton to make.

A turning point in the game was a goal by the Islanders that was disallowed right after Colin Blackwell had put the Rangers up 2-0.  Adam Pelech took a shot from the point that deflected into the net by Brock Nelson, but it was called back for being hit with a high stick by Nelson. Considering the the Islanders scored just 22 seconds later, it was a huge call.

There was only one minor penalty called in this game.  The last time they played a game with only one minor penalty was January 19, 2020 in a game against the Columbus Blue Jackets when Brady Skjei took the only penalty.

The Rangers have played a game without a power only once before this season, a 5-2 loss to the Devils on February 16.

Alexandar Georgiev is now 7-2 lifetime against the Islanders with a Save Percentage of .944 and a Goals Against Average of 1.80.

Mika Zibanejad’s open net goal was his second of the season.  He has scored 11 goals since March 17, most in the NHL.

The kids are putting it together.  At even strength over the last ten games, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider and Pavel Buchnevich have tallied five goals and seven assists.  Over the same ten game stretch, Filip Chytil, Alexis Lafrenière and Kaapo Kakko have scored nine goals and seven assists in a lot less ice time.

This was the first of the four games between the teams that didn’t end in a shutout.

When Lafrenière scored in the second period, it ended a scoreless streak of 146:05 minutes by Semyon Varlamov against the Rangers.

The three goal margin in the loss was the second most in a game for the Isles.  The biggest margin was the 5-0 loss to the Rangers in the second game of the season.

The Rangers have won five in a row at the Nassau Coliseum and eight of their last nine.