Rangers move into tie for wild-card spot after shutting out Islanders in lopsided rivalry win
Join Post Sports+ for exciting member-only features, including real-time texting with Mollie Walker about the inside buzz on the Rangers.There haven’t been many Battles of New York in recent memory with as many playoff implications as the last couple games between the Rangers and Islanders.And for the second time in a week, the Blueshirts asserted themselves in the Eastern Conference postseason race with a definitive 4-0 victory over the Islanders — one of several teams they are vying against for a playoff spot — to move into a tie with the Red Wings for the second wild-card spot.Whichever way this one went, it was going to have significant meaning for the winner.The fact that it was the second-to-last game before the trade deadline for both teams only added to the magnitude.The Islanders were three points behind the Blueshirts coming into the game, with just a single point separating the six closest teams looking from the outside in on the postseason bracket.
That gap ballooned to five as the Rangers picked up their fourth win in their past five games.In a showdown between the two star New York goaltenders, the Rangers’ Igor Shesterkin came out on top of the Islanders’ Ilya Sorokin with a 20-save performance to give his team two shutouts in a row after Jonathan Quick posted one the night before.It was a solid all-around performance from the Rangers, who were competing on the second night of a back-to-back schedule.Islanders head coach Patrick Roy opted to go with 11 forwards and seven defensemen, scratching forwards Pierre Engvall and Anthony Duclair.They have lost seven of the past eight meetings with the Rangers.The Rangers weren’t exactly a force through the first 20 minutes, but they still came away with a 2-0 lead after some puck luck and a shorthanded opportunity.It was technically the Islanders who found the back of the net first, however, when captain Anders Lee snuck one past Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin off a tough angle.
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