Photo: Igor Shesterkin only allowed one goal against cross town rivals the New York Islanders to keep the Rangers in the playoff hunt. ©2025 New York Rangers, NHL
LONG ISLAND, NY—With the way the NHL schedule was created, the first time the New York Rangers and New York Islanders faced off against each other was on Tuesday night this week.
This was the first of four matchups this season and could determine which team gets into the playoffs and which team is practicing their golf swing this summer.
GAME NOTES
The Rangers started the scoring off in the first, when Urho Vaakanainen scored his 2nd of the season at 6:22. But less than two minutes later, the Islanders tied the game up 1-1 with Alexander Romanov’s 3rd goal of the year at 8:19.
And that’s when this game became a tale of two story lines. On the one hand, the New York Islanders dominated the Rangers all over the ice. They outshot the Rangers. They took more shot attempts than the Rangers and they also dominated the offensive zone pressure time.
But the Islanders were just unable to put the puck in the net. Igor Shesterkin faced 9 shots in the first and saved 8 of them. Whereas Ilya Sorokin only faced 5 total shots and gave up three goals.
At 12:39 of the first, Jonny Brodzinski scored his 5th of the season by throwing the puck on net from the blue line. And then with less than a minute in the period, Brodzinski did the same exact thing and scored his second goal of the game.
In the second, it was more of the same. The Islanders outshot the Rangers 14-6, but could not beat Shesterkin. At 11:21 of the second period, JT Miller scored his 14th goal of the season from Mika Zibanejad and Vaakanainen. And then with less than four minutes to play in the period, Matt Rempe tipped the puck in off another Brodzinski shot from the point to make the score 5-1.
And that’s all she wrote.
GAME ANALYSIS
Going into this contest, the two teams still had a lot of hope for making the playoffs. The Islanders were only a few points behind the Rangers, which meant the winner of this game was going to make or break their season.
But there’s nothing the Islanders could do to beat Shesterkin. Igor finished the game saving 36 of 37 shots compared to the Rangers only taking a total of 18 shots in the entire game.
It was pure domination on the ice by the Islanders meanwhile domination on the scoreboard by the Rangers.
So where do the Rangers go from here?
This is now their second win in a row, which puts them right in the middle of the heated Eastern Conference standings. As of play today, February 28, the Rangers are only four points out of the last wildcard spot behind the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Columbus has 66 points in 59 games played, whereas the Rangers have 62 points with only 58 games played.
GAME STATS
Jonnny Brodzinski 2 goals, 1 assist (13:14 TOI) 2 shots, 3 hits
Matt Rempe 1 goal (11:30 TOI) 1 shots, 6 hits
JT Miller 1 goal (15:47 TOI) 1 shot, 5 hits
Will Cuylle (14:13 TOI) 2 shots, 2 blocks, 5 hits
Injury Update: Adam Fox will be placed on the IR list with an upper body injury and will miss significant time. It is unclear at the moment, when Fox will return to the lineup, but there is no indication he would not be available if the Rangers were to make the playoffs.
K’Andre Miller also left Tuesday’s game with a lower body injury, but at the moment he is just day to day.
NEXT GAME
The New York Rangers next game is tonight against the Toronto Maple Leafs, who are 36-20-2 on the season with 72 points. Every game the rest of the season is a big one for the blueshirts, so no rest for the weary.
New York plans to play defense by committee with Fox out of the lineup and with Miller questionable for tonight’s game. Zac Jones should see some time, but its unclear who might be called up from Hartford at the moment.
The Rangers have a lot of things to clear up. If they play as poorly against Toronto like they did against the Islanders, the final score will not be as lopsided in the Rangers favor.
New York cannot continue to keep giving up close to 40 shots a game and expect to win. And they need to generate more than 18 shots as well. It’s crunch time and now is the time we see, which players have the heart of a champion and which players probably need to be shipped out for next season.
This is must see hockey, so stay tuned…