Thursday night at Madison Square Garden the Rangers allowed three goals late in the second period and ended up losing to the Islanders by the score of 4-1. The loss dropped the Blueshirts into a third-place tie with the Islanders, who have two games remaining in the regular season while the Rangers only have one–Saturday afternoon against the Detroit Red Wings at MSG.
The Rangers were winless this season against the Islanders, losing three times in regulation and once in a shootout. Both teams currently have 99 points heading into the final weekend of the regular season, tied for third place in the Metropolitan Division.
Neither team was able to ice a complete lineup on Thursday. The Rangers were without two of their top four defensemen in Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi, who were both injured earlier in the week. The Islanders played without defensemen Travis Hamonic and Brian Strait, forwards Cal Clutterbuck, Matt Martin and Mikhail Grabovski, and two of their goaltenders–Jaroslav Halak and J.F. Berube.
However the goalie who did play for the Islanders–Thomas Greiss–was more than good enough Thursday night. Greiss was rock solid in winning his fourth consecutive start, finishing with 36 saves. He was particularly good in the second period when he stopped all 16 shots he faced, stoning the Rangers at every turn before a scoreless game quickly turned into a 3-0 Islanders lead late in the period.
Shane Prince was credited with the game’s first goal at 13:28 of the second period when a Marek Zidlicky slap shot hit off Prince before deflecting off Rangers defenseman Dan Boyle and into the net.
The Rangers surged after Prince’s goal, pinning the Islanders for extended periods in their own end of the ice. But time and again Greiss turned the Blueshirts away, whether it was a lightning quick right pad to deny a Rick Nash bomb or some cat-like reflexes to keep Jesper Fast and Kevin Hayes at bay during a goal-mouth scramble.
Greiss’ standout moment came at 17:30 of the second when he absolutely robbed J.T. Miller on a bullet one-timer from the low slot. One minute later the Islanders doubled their lead when Casey Cizikas buried a feed from Prince at 18:38.
Before the period ended Frans Nielsen scored his 20th goal of the season with 14.8 seconds remaining on the clock, this one on the power play after a Keith Yandle tripping penalty, to make it 3-0. John Tavares made a gorgeous feed through the low slot to set up Nielsen’s goal.
Henrik Lundqvist was hardly to blame for the three Islanders goals, but he was replaced by Antti Raanta to start the third period. Lundqvist surrendered three goals on 16 shots. Raanta was greeted by a Brock Nelson breakaway on the opening shift of the third period and he made a sharp pad save. Midway through the period he made another outstanding save when Cizikas broke in shorthanded.
Kevin Klein ruined Greiss’ bid for a shutout when he drove a slap shot through a screen set up in front by Nash with 2:48 remaining in regulation. Yandle and Derek Stepan assisted on the goal.
Tavres netted an empty-net goal to close out the scoring at 19:28.
The Rangers had a scare with 6:22 remaining in regulation when Fast was hit in the face by Ryan Strome’s stick as he cleared the puck out of the Islanders zone. Fast then careened into the side boards and remained down on the ice for an extended period. Strome was not penalized on the play.
Jim Cerny
BlueshirtsUnited.com
(Reprinted with permission of the New York Rangers)
