The New York Islanders beat the New York Rangers for their third win against a quality Metropolitan Division opponent in the past week.
Well, the New York Islanders played themselves one heck of a game tonight as they beat the first place Rangers. The Islanders got on the board first thanks to a Scott Mayfield blast.
Mayfield was filling in for the ill Johnny Boychuk and he sure looked like Johnny B on that shot. Mayfield has played well in his limited time with the team, I think he can be an NHL quality defenseman the only issue is the Islanders have a ton of depth at the position.
They weren’t done with just one goal in the first. Jason Chimera, the Ranger killer, netted one as well.
It’d be pretty nice to get some production out of Chimera, who started slow but seems to be catching a hot streak as of late.
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Less than a minute into the second Jimmy Vesey would make it a one goal game. Jaroslav Halak let up a big rebound and he beat Josh Bailey to the puck. The momentum seemed to swing a little at this point but the Isles never let it get out of hand.
Andrew Ladd responded quickly with a goal to give the Islanders a two goal lead once again.
If Andrew Ladd can give anything resembling production I’ll be happy. He’s started off so slow but has been playing better through this Islanders resurgence. Hopefully he gets hot and finds the back of the net some more.
Marc Staal would add another for the Rangers and it was 3-2 after two.
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Through two periods of play it was a very entertaining game. The Islanders were the better of the two teams, but it was only a one score game. That is until John Tavares did John Tavares things on the power play.
The Islanders for the third time had a two goal lead and that would end up holding through the end of the game. Despite, the Isles taking two penalties at the end to give the Rangers a nice 6 on 3 advantage.
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Overall Halak looked good, the offense got a ton of chances and the penalty kill continued to shine. The Isles still have a ways to go but they are playing much better hockey as they’ve now beat the Penguins, Capitals and Rangers in the past week.