From the get-go, the Rangers produced a much more opportunistic effort than the Islanders and it grew in their favor as the game ensued. For the Islanders, it wasn't their best effort, but they also faced some unlucky bounces - including hitting posts on a Brock Nelson power-play tip-in, and two-third period shots from Cal Clutterbuck and Anthony Beauvillier - that narrowed their chances of climbing out of a deficit.
Pucks didn't go in for us tonight, we hit three posts," Trotz said. If they go in and we get it 2-2, maybe it's a different story, but it never happened on our push. They got the third goal and that's all they needed."
While neither team got on the board in the first period, the Rangers came out with some noticeable jump and outshot the Islanders 13-7. The Islanders generated some strong looks, including a solid chance on the only power play of the night - as Mika Zibanejad boarded Jean-Gabriel Pageau at 10:56 - where Nick Leddy rifled a point shot on net and Nelson deflected it, but struck the crossbar.
Both teams got on the board in the middle frame, but it was the Rangers who had the 2-1 advantage heading into the second intermission. By the midway point of the period, the Rangers took a 2-0 lead as they netted two goals in the span of 3:56.
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Greene's First Goal of the Season
The Rangers rookie winger and last year's first overall pick at the 2020 NHL Draft, Lafreniere picked up the icebreaker on a net-front scramble. Varlamov made three initial stops on the sequence of attempts, but his blueline failed to get a clear and instead, Lafreniere buried a rebound on the doorstep at 6:05.
Just under four minutes later, a hot handed Blackwell - who extended his goal streak to three games and scored his sixth goal in the last seven games - doubled the Blueshirts lead 2-0 at 10:01. Some slick passing the right faceoff circle, to the goal line and into the slot, from Ryan Strome and Artemi Panarin opened up Blackwell for his goal from the slow slot that snuck past Varlamov's right elbow.
The Islanders seemingly cut their lead down 2-1 at 14:07 as Brock Nelson tipped in an Adam Pelech point shot, but the play was overturned due to Nelson's stick reaching higher than the height of the crossbar.
Instead of allowing the overturned goal to deflate them, the Islanders used it as motivation.
On the subsequent shift - and after play stopped so the officials could review Nelson's faux strike - the Islanders got the board, for real this time. A terrific forechecking effort from Jordan Eberle allowed the Islanders to regain possession and for Mathew Barzal to connect with Andy Greene, who was walking the blueline. Greene wired in his shot through traffic and past Georgiev.
"We knew there would be opportunities up high with strong side pull ups, or finding D off the wall there," Greene said. We had a couple of opportunities throughout the game. Fortunately, it went off a stick and found a way in. We were trying to get back in the game at that point. We were playing pretty well after we got down 2-0."
