Takeaways: Rangers 6, Islanders 4

The New York Islanders fell 6-4 to the New York Rangers on Tuesday night in their second preseason matchup.

Mathew Barzal (2G), Grant Hutton and Bo Horvat built a 4-1 lead at the 7:24 mark of the third period, but the Rangers scored five times in under six minutes in the third period to complete the comeback. Adam Edstrom scored the game-winning goal for the Rangers with 38 seconds left in the game and Chris Kreider iced it with an empty netter at the 19:49 mark of the third.

Zac Jones (2G), Chris Kreider (PPG, EN), Filip Chytil and Adam Edstrom (GWG) powered the offense for the Rangers.

"It's just a collective, just came down to a couple key moments to get a puck out, to pressure off a faceoff, just a few things that we could have done better tonight," Barzal said. "So, yes, it sucks regardless of it being the preseason, we take pride in in winning. And it's a rivalry game, so it means a bit more. Can't let that happen."

The starting goaltenders had a veteran edge on both sides of the aisle to begin the game. Semyon Varlamov stopped all 10 shots he faced before he was replaced midway through the game by Henrik Tikkanen, who stopped eight of 13 in the loss. Igor Shesterkin stopped 16 of 18 shots before Jonathan Quick entered the game and made eight saves for the win.

DUCLAIR-HORVAT-BARZAL LINE MAKES ISLES PRESEASON DEBUT:

Although the Isles didn’t get the result they wanted, the positive to come out of Tuesday night was the way Anthony Duclair fit in on a line with Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat.

Duclair notched a pair of assists, including a perfect feed on Barzal’s first goal to open the scoring at 3:41 of the first period.

“He’s easy to play with, always open,” Barzal said. “I thought [Duclair] did a good job with forechecking. He's a bigger guy than I thought, he was good with winning battles and getting in the corners. He’s not afraid to hang onto it down there. I think that's going to be the key for our line, just turning pucks over and transition game.”

The line combined for five points (3G, 2A) and had many quality chances, as Barzal potted a pair of goals, including capitalizing on a delayed penalty in the second period. The line combined for 10 shots on goal and 14 total shot attempts.

"The top line played very well,” Head Coach Patrick Roy said. “They were very good offensively and defensively. I'm very happy about the way they played."

OTHER NOTES

Scott Mayfield played in his second consecutive preseason game and recorded 16:34 TOI, which is a positive for a player coming off of a lengthy injury absence. The defenseman had an eventful first period with a hit on Filip Chytil and dropped the gloves with Ryan Lindgren. Dennis Cholowski and Kyle MacLean also played in their second consecutive preseason game.

Mathew Barzal had three takeaways in Tuesday’s game, which was a team high. Barzal finished last season with 84 takeaways, which ranked third in the league.

Matt Martin finished with a team-high five hits and sported an A as one of the team’s alternate captains for the game. Bo Horvat also wore an A.

The Islanders’ power play went 0-for-4, while their penalty kill went 1-for-2.

NOTABLE QUOTE

Head Coach Patrick Roy on the plan to work on five-on-six play at Training Camp.

"We need to be better five on six, but we haven't touched it [in camp] but we haven't touched it, but we're going to practice that and we we'll fix that. There's no worries for me in that regard, we're going to work at it, and make sure it's better than what we did tonight."