This was a win that goes beyond the atmosphere, the elements, the noise, the theatrics, and the fact that the NHL's 41st outdoor game was seen by the third largest crowd in NHL history.
This win was about confidence and resiliency, which the Rangers have, and the Rangers are.
"I think that you gain confidence when things are going well," Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. "You feel like you can do anything. So when you're down by a couple goals with six minutes to go you still feel like you can do something. I think our guys believed that."
That belief was built before the Rangers arrived at MetLife Stadium on FDNY fire trucks and behind vintage NYPD blue cop cars walking with officers from both departments and wearing their jerseys.
That belief that Laviolette spoke about was built in the past three weeks on a six-game winning streak that the Rangers carried into the Stadium Series.
"That definitely played a bit of a role and that gave us quite a bit of confidence," Panarin said.
So, the Rangers didn't panic when they had a first period to forget, going down 3-1 before Laviolette used their timeout "to stop the game" after Mathew Barzal scored at 7:34, the Islanders' third goal in a span of 3:14.
"We really don't quit in that game and there were a lot of times where we easily could have just laid down," defenseman Adam Fox said.
They felt the pressure but didn't succumb to it when Anders Lee made it 4-1 Islanders at 1:03 of the second period.
The Rangers' power play, 1-for-21 in the previous eight games, struck for the first of three goals at 5:36, Vincent Trocheck scoring his first of the period with a deflection of Panarin's shot to make it 4-2.
"I thought the second goal was a really important goal just to fight back," Laviolette said. "I thought our guys just stuck with it. Confidence goes into that a little bit."
Trocheck scored again off a rebound from the side of the net at 18:24 to send the Rangers into the second intermission down 4-3.