Rangers Fall to Islanders in Brooklyn

When you get out of the gates as fast as the Rangers did on Thursday night, when you dominate possession for long stretches and pour 41 shots on net, and when you match your season high in goals - this is not generally a recipe for a streak-ending loss.
But throw in a penalty here and a coverage mistake there, and it added up to a wild, and flummoxing, 7-5 loss to the Islanders at Barclays Center on a snowy evening in Brooklyn.
The defeat brought an end to the Rangers' seven-game points streak, which began on Oct. 30 and included six victories and 13 out of a possible 14 points. Instead, they saw the Islanders improve to 7-0-0 against the Metropolitan Division this season and keep the Rangers winless on Barclays Center ice.
"Obviously when you score that many goals you usually put yourself in a good spot to win," said Mika Zibanejad, whose first-period assist was his 100th point as a Ranger. "But unfortunately defensively we didn't. We've got to look at this game and move on to the next one."

Chris Kreider struck twice on power plays for the Rangers - his third multi-goal game this season - while Filip Chytil made it back-to-back games with a goal, Freddy Claesson scored his first of the season from the blue line and Kevin Hayes notched his fifth career shorthanded goal. The Rangers scored five goals for the fourth time this season but fell to 2-2 in those games.

Anthony Beauvillier picked up his first career hat trick, while Thomas Greiss made 36 saves as the Rangers - who set a season high last year with 50 shots in a Feb. 15 game at this same rink - outshot the Isles 41-24 on this night. Beauvillier scored one of the Isles' two power-play goals that broke the game's final tie in the second period. Anders Lee scored the other, and the Islanders got goals from Brock Nelson, Leo Komarov and Cal Clutterbuck (empty-netter).
Henrik Lundqvist made 12 saves before Alexandar Georgiev came on to play the third period and nearly backstop a Ranger comeback.
"It had nothing to do with him, that's for sure," David Quinn said of the decision to keep Lundqvist on the bench to start the third. "I don't think he had a chance on any of (the goals)."
For Quinn, "the story of the game is our lack of play around our own net" - which is to say that the Islanders scored four of their goals on redirections from in front of the Rangers' net, including the pair of goals 63 seconds apart that canceled out the Rangers' fast start.
"The simple fact is, we didn't pick sticks up," Quinn said. "It's unfortunate, because I thought we did a lot of good things tonight. But when you're giving up those goals too easily - they just scored way too easily tonight. That's something we haven't been doing.
"It's unfortunate because we got off to a good start, but we couldn't ride the momentum because we couldn't do the most simplistic thing, which is when you're standing next to someone you've got to pick their stick up."
That momentum was coming in waves in the early going, after Kreider and Claesson staked the red-hot Rangers to a 2-0 lead 5:35 in on goals 35 seconds apart, first Kreider with a put-back of a shot by Neal Pionk (two assists), then Claesson flying from the bench into the zone to take Brett Howden's feed out of the corner and finish with a top-corner wrister.

But midway through the period, Beauvillier scored his first of the game and Nelson tied the score 63 seconds after that - both on tips, both giving Lundqvist no chance to make a save.
"There were some deflections where forwards and D both, looking back on it, would like to do something different, whether it be pick up a stick here, get in a lane there," Kreider said. "That's something we've done a really good job of. We got away from it a little bit tonight, and it seemed every time we got away from it they scored."
From there, four minor penalties to the Rangers in a stretch of just over nine minutes spanning the first and second periods clearly hampered their ability to regain their traction. On the first call, the referees apologized for mistakenly slapping Mika Zibanejad for a high-sticking double minor (it was in fact an Islander's stick getting up on a teammate); on the last call, an interference penalty to Brady Skjei was a call Quinn "had a huge problem with."
"That's not what determines this game," Zibanejad said, but added, "It's momentum, it goes over to them. Things like that happen - probably shouldn't happen, but you can't control it."
Beauvillier scored twice in the first 5:13 of the second to complete his hat trick, sandwiching Hayes' shorthanded goal at 3:21 when Jesper Fast drove the middle and opened up space. Goals by Lee and Komarov made it 6-3 by the midpoint of the third.

Kreider's second of the game, followed by Chytil's second of the week, trimmed it to 6-5 with 2:29 to play, but after Quinn called timeout and Georgiev to the bench, Clutterbuck hit the empty net to seal it.
"We've got to make sure this is a one-time thing," Zibanejad said. "We fought back, we fought hard, but it's a tough one."
One streak remains intact for the Blueshirts: They have won four straight at Madison Square Garden, and return to home ice for their next three games, beginning on Saturday night against the Florida Panthers.
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