The Islanders had every opportunity to fumble Tuesday’s game away like they have so many times this season.
But instead of succumbing to the old demons, they proved themselves to be a new team.
One that is looking more and more like it will get a chance to compete in the playoffs.
After going 531 straight days without playing at UBS Arena, the Rangers left on Tuesday without any happy memories, as their comeback attempt fell short against a desperate Islanders side fighting tooth and nail to get into the postseason.
After a 4-2 win over the Blueshirts that teetered on the edge for the entire final 20 minutes, the Islanders appear to be zeroing in on nailing that down.
With the win, they stayed in third place in the Metropolitan Division, lengthening the gap on the Flyers, who are fading from the race and were embarrassed by Montreal, and keeping the Capitals at arm’s length, as Washington beat Detroit.
This looked at first as though it would be a romp, with the Islanders opening up a 3-0 lead on the back of one of their best periods of the season.
But just like the game two months ago at MetLife Stadium, it turned into anything but.
Special teams nearly undid the Islanders, who took three consecutive penalties in the second.
The Rangers scored on two of them, first with Chris Kreider tipping Artemi Panarin’s shot and then on Adam Fox’s wrister from above the slot that made its way through traffic.
So, going into the third, no matter what color you were wearing, everyone in UBS Arena was having flashbacks.
Those were not ameliorated when the Rangers came in waves to start the final period, establishing a strong forecheck and holding the puck almost without pause.
Despite their early lead, the Islanders were falling into old habits — sitting back, depending on their goaltender and trying to eke out a one-goal win.
Like it or not, this was going to be the same combination of Semyon Varlamov and desperate defending that the Islanders relied on Saturday against Nashville.
And aside from a two-minute reprieve after Barclay Goodrow’s slashing penalty, that’s just what this was.
Somehow, for the second game running, it worked, as Varlamov finished the game with 34 saves and the Islanders battled just hard enough to hang on, with Anders Lee’s empty-net goal sealing the deal with 5.8 seconds remaining after a controversial no-call on a Noah Dobson hit of Vincent Trocheck into the boards.
The loss on the ice might not be the biggest the Rangers suffered Tuesday.
They played the game’s last 10 minutes without Mika Zibanejad after the star center went down in a heap following a collision with Adam Pelech.
That proved a little more stressful than it looked this game would be after the Islanders came out of the gates skating as hard and intensely as they have all season.
the Islanders. Noah K. Murray-NY Post
It took all of 85 seconds before Mat Barzal was given a penalty shot after Adam Fox’s hook on a breakaway. And after Igor Shesterkin denied him, it took less than three more minutes before Barzal was at the front of the net for Mike Reilly’s point shot, which bounced off the stick of Ryan Lindgren and in.
Just past the halfway point of the first period, Bo Horvat doubled the lead, tipping in Dobson’s shot that marked the defenseman’s 59th assist of the season.
Less than two minutes after that, Dobson notched No. 60, getting the secondary assist on Brock Nelson’s feed to Kyle Palmieri in the crease.
That made Dobson the first Islanders defenseman since Denis Potvin to reach 60 assists in a season. And it just so happened that No. 5 was watching on in a suite to see him do it.
The franchise record for a defenseman, set by Potvin, by the way, is 70. He did so in 1979, and the Islanders made sure that would be the only evocation of that season on Tuesday by beating the Rangers this time around.
