The Rangers are rolling now, and not even their greatest rivals are enough to stop them.
Locked in a battle for first place in the Metropolitan Division, and determined to raise their game to its absolute peak when the playoffs start in 10 days, the Rangers got three goals from Andrew Copp, four assists from Artemi Panarin, and three assists from Adam Fox and beat the Islanders, 6-3, Thursday night at UBS Arena.
The victory allowed the Rangers to keep pace with the Carolina Hurricanes, who beat Winnipeg, 4-2, and remain in a first-place tie in the division. Both teams have 108 points with four games remaining, including one against each other Tuesday at Madison Square Garden.
Chris Kreider, chasing the Rangers’ single-season record of 54 goals, got his 51st, and his NHL-leading 26th power-play goal of the season. And Ryan Strome scored his 20th of the season, the first time he’s reached the plateau.
With the victory, the Rangers (51-21-6) clinched at least second place in the division, and home ice in the first round of the playoffs. And the season series between the Islanders and Rangers ended 2-2, with each team winning both games in the opponent’s arena.
Brock Nelson had two goals for the Islanders and Josh Bailey had one, plus one assist. The Islanders played without forwards Anthony Beauvillier, out with an upper-body injury, and Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who was in COVID protocol, along with assistant coaches Lane Lambert and Jim Hiller.
For the Rangers, the victory was their fourth straight, though their shutout streak ended at three games, after Nelson scored 37 seconds into the second period. The Rangers didn't allow a goal for 200 minutes, 43 seconds. Before Nelson's goal, the last one allowed was an empty-netter at 19:54 of the third period in their 4-2 loss to Carolina on April 12.
Copp’s hat trick came in the first period and was the third first-period hat trick in franchise history, the last coming on December 26, 1986, from Kelly Kisio. It was the second natural hat trick – three consecutive goals – completed in the first period in franchise history. Don Raleigh was the first to do it, on Feb. 25, 1948.
Panarin assisted on all three goals, and then assisted on Strome’s goal, that made it 5-1 at 19:07 of the second period and gave Panarin a career high 96 points on the season. He set his previous standard of 95 in his first season with the Rangers, in 2019-20. He needs four points in the final four games to get to 100.
The Islanders actually started faster than the Rangers, and Mathew Barzal nearly gave them a early lead when he stole a pass inside the Rangers’ blue line and broke in alone on goaltender Alexandar Georgiev. But Georgiev (26 saves) stood his ground and made the save, 1:33 into the game. Georgiev, who has now won his last seven starts, was solid in the first few minutes of the first period, until the Rangers got settled, and started to take over.
Copp scored his first goal at 3:43 of the first, trailing the play and one-timing a pretty backhand pass from Panarin past Semyon Varlamov (17 saves) from the top of the right circle. His second goal, a shot from below the right circle, on a pinpoint pass by Panarin, through a maze of bodies, made it 2-0 at 7:48. His third goal, which made it 3-0, came off a give-and-go return pass from Strome, but it was Panarin who started the play, carrying the puck into the zone and taking a hit from Brock Nelson as he backhanded a feed to Copp to start a two-on-one with Strome.
Nelson’s goal made it 3-1, but Kreider scored at 17:15 of the second period to make it 4-1, and Strome’s goal made it 5-1 before the period was over.
Nelson scored on a power play to make it 5-2 at 2:06 of the third period, but Ryan Reaves finished a 3-on-1 break with his fourth goal of the season to make it 6-2 at 12:53. Bailey scored 29 seconds later to make it 6-3.
