NEW YORK — That was a fun way to spend St. Patrick’s Day – for Islander fans, anyway.
The Rangers and Islanders got together on Thursday for only the second time this season, and with the Isles fully healthy this time, and the Rangers bolstered by their new trade acquisition, Frank Vatrano, the fans at Madison Square Garden were treated to a fast-paced, end-to-end affair that ended with the visitors riding the hot goaltending of Ilya Sorokin to thrilling 2-1 victory.
Kyle Palmieri deflected in a shot from Ryan Pulock past Igor Shesterkin with 2:44 remaining to break a 1-1 tie. The Rangers were upset that a moment before, the Islanders’ Oliver Wahlstrom had appeared to catch Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren in the mouth with an elbow, but no penalty was called.
As the Islanders’ hopes for a playoff spot become less and less realistic, games like this one against the Rangers are increasingly the only things they have real reason to get up for. The win for the Islanders evened the series at 1-1, with two more contests remaining.
The game had been rescheduled from Nov. 28, when the Islanders were in the throes of COVID-19 hell. The Rangers had beaten them, 4-1, in UBS Arena on the night before Thanksgiving, at a time when the Isles were missing eight regulars due to COVID and other injury. The teams were supposed to play again that Sunday, but the game was postponed to Thursday.
The victory for the Islanders lifted them above NHL .500, at 25-24-9, while the Rangers’ two-game winning streak was stopped. They fell to 38-18-5, and fell out of a tie with the Pittsburgh Penguins and into third place in the Metropolitan Division.
Vatrano, a 5-11, 197-pound forward acquired Wednesday from the Florida Panthers in exchange for a fourth-round pick in this summer’s NHL draft, made his Rangers debut on the right wing of the Artemi Panarin-Ryan Strome line.
"I think he's pretty excited,’’ Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said in his pregame media briefing Thursday of Vatrano. "He seemed to be really excited this morning, and looking forward to an opportunity and playing more minutes, obviously.’’
Vatrano had been playing in a fourth-line role with the Panthers, and had scored 10 goals and nine assists in 49 games. But he figured to get a lot more ice time with the Rangers, who needed more offensive production from their bottom two lines, in addition to getting a right winger for Strome and Panarin who could score a goal now and again.
Vatrano looked just fine playing with Panarin and Strome. He had an energetic first period, recording one shot on goal and one blocked shot — which looked like it hurt him — on the same shift. But neither team scored in a fast-paced, end-to-end opening 20 minutes.
The Islanders opened the scoring with a power-play goal by Anders Lee, who beat Shesterkin high on the glove side from the slot 49 seconds into the second period, one second before a penalty to Barclay Goodrow expired. The Rangers, though, tied it with a power-play goal by Chris Kreider for his 40th goal of the season — and league-best 21st power-play goal.
But that was it, and the teams were tied going into the third period. The Rangers had a slight edge in some on the stat sheet — a 22-18 lead in shots on goal, a 16-8 lead in faceoff wins, and a 21-17 edge in hits, led by Ryan Reaves, who had seven.
