Areas of improvement for the Islanders include getting all four lines involved in the offense while shoring up their defensive play.
It took until the third period for the offense to match the defense, but the Islanders’ fourth line produced both goals in a 2-0 win over the Rangers on Monday night at Madison Square Garden.
It gave the Islanders (5-4-2) just their second winning streak of the season after they snapped an 0-3-2 skid with Saturday night’s 4-3 win over the Penguins at Nassau Coliseum. The Islanders started Saturday in last place in the East Division, but Monday’s win moved them past the idle Penguins and into fourth place. Four of the division’s eight teams will qualify for the playoffs.
Semyon Varlamov made 30 saves behind a structured defensive effort for his third shutout of the season and his second against the Rangers.
Casey Cizikas finally made it 1-0 at 11:15 of the third period after Rangers defenseman Libor Hajek turned the puck over, connecting on a backhander at the right post off Matt Martin’s feed.
Martin then gave the Islanders a 2-0 lead at 13:20 as he established position at the left post and banged in Cal Clutterbuck’s feed from the right past Igor Shesterkin (28 saves).
Monday marked the third of eight games between the New York rivals – the next one is not until April 9 at the Coliseum – after they split shutouts at the Garden to open the season.
The Islanders won, 4-0, on Jan. 14 against Shesterkin as Varlamov made 24 saves. But the Rangers beat them, 5-0, two nights later as highly-touted Russian rookie Ilya Sorokin was forced into his NHL debut after Varlamov, the intended starter, was injured in warmups when Clutterbuck hit him under the mask with a shot.
The Islanders want to reestablish the consistent defensive structure that marked much of coach Barry Trotz’s first two seasons.
Coming into Monday’s game, per naturalstattrick.com, the Islanders ranked 19th in the 31-team NHL both in only getting 47.06% of the high-danger chances in games and having just 84.76% of scoring-chance shots against them not wind up as goals.
"Maybe we haven’t been as consistent in that area as we’d like to be at times," defenseman Ryan Pulock said. "We’ve had some breakdowns, maybe more often than we have in the past. It’s hard to really pinpoint why exactly. But that’s an area we need to get better at and that’s been our strength over the past few years, playing good defense, not allowing much and smothering teams in the defensive zone."
All four Islanders’ lines worked to establish a forecheck in a first period that ended 0-0. Some early momentum was lost when Michael Dal Colle was called for hooking Jacob Trouba in the offensive zone at 1:21 and the Rangers took eight of the first 11 shots. But their shot advantage was just 9-7 after 20 minutes.
Varlamov helped the game enter the third period, 0-0, as well, stopping Brett Howden on a three-on-two-rush at 2:16 of the second period and then sliding to his right to stop Artemi Panarin off a cross-ice feed.
He then gloved Panarin’s forehand shot at 1:57 of the third period after he was sprung to the net by rookie defenseman K’Andre Miller.
The Islanders also came close in the second period. Jordan Eberle hit the post with a forehander as he skated below the left circle at 1:00 and Shesterkin turned aside Brock Nelson at the crease at 8:21 after the Rangers pushed the puck backward as their second power play expired.
