3 Takeaways: Balanced Scoring Leads Isles Past Rangers 5-3

The New York Islanders exacted a little revenge on the New York Rangers on Saturday night, cruising to an 5-3 win over their archrivals at UBS Arena.

Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Brock Nelson, Bo Horvat and Cal Clutterbuck (1G, 1A) opened up a 4-0 lead on the Rangers, which was enough to hold off a third period flurry from Brennan Othmann, Barclay Goodrow and Will Cuylle. Anders Lee (1G, 1A) rounded out the scoring with a late empty-netter.

Semyon Varlamov stopped 22-of-25 shots in his first full start of the preseason for the Islanders, Jonathan Quick stopped 17-of-21 in two periods of action for the Rangers, while Dylan Garand stopped all seven shots he saw in the third period.

With the win, the Islanders, who iced a veteran-laden lineup on Saturday, improved to 2-1-0 in preseason play.

“There were so many positive things,” Head Coach Lane Lambert said. “We came out of the gate. We were moving the puck. We were playing fast. We were doing things that we have been talking about right from day one of training camp and I thought everyone was certainly engaged and it was a very encouraging situation.”

Isles Offense Coming Together

On Tuesday night, Head Coach Lane Lambert quipped that Rome wasn’t built in a day to describe where the Islanders were at after a 4-2 loss to the Rangers.

Four days later, the Islanders offense looked like it was building a solid foundation in a rematch against their crosstown rivals, as all four lines hit the scoresheet.

It was evident on Hudson Fasching’s no-look, between-the-legs drop pass to Nelson, who made a quick move to open up Jonathan Quick’s five-hole to make it 2-0 at 9:37. Horvat showcased some speed on a nifty wraparound to put the Islanders up 3-0 at 17:11. Horvat nearly had a second goal in the middle frame on some tic-tac-toe with Mathew Barzal and Simon Holmstrom, but was denied by Quick.

Ross Johnston, Kyle MacLean and Clutterbuck also teamed up for a goal in the second period, with the Clutterbuck burying a MacLean feed high past Quick at 10:43.

It was an encouraging night for the Islanders, even with the caveat that the started their backup goalie and regulars such as defensemen Adam Fox and K’Andre Miller and forward Chris Kreider were out of the lineup.

“Every line was going tonight, everybody contributed,” Horvat said. “It just seemed like everybody knew where everybody was going to be and that's a lot to do with our routes and practice, but also talking and knowing where everybody's going to be and communicating with your teammates.”

Lee and Pageau Devloping Chemistry

Anders Lee and JG Pageau are two players who hadn’t played a lot together during their Islanders tenures – 226 minutes at five-on-five over 175 games – but were a combo that Head Coach Lane Lambert wanted to get an extended look at it.

After practicing together for the first week of camp and getting a game under their belt on Tuesday night, the experiment yielded some results during Saturday’s game against the New York Rangers.

Pageau opened the scoring at 7:07 driving to the net and deflecting a high, hard pass from Lee, who whistled one across the zone from the boards.

“We’re working hard and we've had a lot of good communication and we’re playing the right way,” Lee said. “Those little touches will start to come even more and more and we’ll be more familiar, but through two games I think we've got a really solid base and looking forward to just building on that.”

The Islanders captain also had a physical presence on Saturday night, laying out defenseman Mac Hollowell in the Rangers zone in the second period. Barclay Goodrow took exception to the hit, with Lee dropping the gloves for the 17^th time in his NHL career.  

Lee eventually rounded out his Gordie Howe hat trick with an empty-netter in the dying seconds of the third period.

“He's a hard player to play against,” Pageau said. “He’s hard to beat in one-on-one battles and he's going to do all those little details all the time and that's why he's a leader and you want to follow his lead.”

Romanov Excels in Preseason Debut

Alexander Romanov was excited to make his preseason debut Saturday and very much played like someone who was eager to hit the ice.  

The physical defenseman started the game with a bang, delivering a hard, clean hit on Brennan Othmann and toppled Tyler Pitlick early in the second.

Romanov was paired with Ryan Pulock and logged 21:06 TOI (second highest on the team), and set team-highs with 10 shot attempts (4 SOG, 5 A/B, 1 MS), four hits and three blocked shots.

“I thought he was really good,” Lambert said. “He had a great gap. He played hard. He moved the puck pretty well. He put pucks to the net. I thought just his energy alone was uplifting.”

Next Game

The Islanders take on the New Jersey Devils on Monday night at Prudential Center at 7 p.m.