The Rangers literally changed the script.
After flying in the first half of the season against the Islanders, the Rangers turned around and returned immediately, reuniting their own 5-0 performance against Barry Trotz and company at Madison Square Garden. on Saturday night.
The Rangers, who lost 4-0 in head coach David Quinn questioned their effort, finally showed up in the 2020-21 season. Even with their second highest paid defender, Tony DeAngelo, wearing street clothes due to a penalty of undisciplined unsportsmanlike conduct that was made in the first game, the Rangers looked like the team that had the coaching staff sprouting. on his focus on the training ground.
The effort was there. The smart steps were there. The Rangers were there.
Behind two goals from Pavel Buchnevich and Artemi Panarin each, the Rangers 1-1 got the boost they needed from their front line. Alexandar Georgiev recorded his fifth finish of his career, adding 23 stops in the victory.
The islanders received a first omen that their night would not be good when the goalkeeper, Semyon Varlamov, took a disc to his throat during the warm-ups and had to leave the ice and threw without warning Ilya Sorokin abroad Russian.
The Rangers stacked their shots early, advancing 2-0 in the first period. Mika Zibanejad opened the scoring, stealing the record from islanders defender Noah Dobson, found Buchnevich in the 2-on-1 race at 2:12.
The Islanders defense was successful shortly afterwards when Ryan Pulock absorbed a shot from Jacob Trouba next to the head and headed straight into the locker room. But Pulock returned at the start of the second period.
Then, Brendan Smith intercepted a pass and hit a Panarin scratch, which shot Sorokin to the right side to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead, at 1:46 p.m., and effectively put his first-round win. three-goal period in Thursday’s loss. .
In the second period, the Islanders received several penalties, including two against Mathew Barzal. After Scott Mayfield got tangled up with a line player, Buchnevich grabbed the puck and pulled a shot at a strong angle from the left point to turn it into a 3-0 match early in the second.
Then the Phillip Di Giuseppe-Filip Chytil-Kaapo Kakko line forced a billing later, with Kakko finishing with a time at 15:24 of the second.
The Icelanders played better in the third period, keeping time in the Rangers zone and making two shots off the post in the final two minutes, but the Rangers dominated all the time.
After Ross Johnston was penalized for fighting Ryan Lindgren and Trouba, Panarin cleared the rubbish of the power play to end the score.