Islanders Locker Room: House Full of Highlights

The New York Islanders were a skating highlight reel on Saturday night in their 5-3 win over the New York Rangers.

ELMONT, NY -- The New York Islanders were a skating highlight reel on Saturday night in their 5-3 win over the New York Rangers.

On each goal, the blue and orange scored, there was either a strong play combined with a strong finish that had UBS Arena rocking. 

Let's go goal by goal with quotes from the players that made it happen.

Islanders captain Anders Lee has been stapled to Jean-Gabriel Pageau's wing from the start of training camp. They've showcased some strong chemistry, with Lee calling it a strong "base" as both haven't played much together over the years.

Adding speedster Julien Gauthier to that line on Saturday night made that line a force.

With under 13 minutes to play in the first, Gauthier hopped on a loose puck in the neutral zone and took a hit as he crossed the Rangers' blue line.

Before the contact, Gauthier chipped the puck off the boards, and with no hesitation, Lee hit Pageau on the tape before a strong finish to give the Islanders a 1-0 lead. 

QUOTE: "Amazing," Gauthier said on Lee's pass and Pageau's finish. "It's fun to play with guys who can't finish. Lee made an awesome play, obviously. It's an elite pass and an elite finish as well to get that off the ice, so it was great."

Hudson Fasching was a bottom-six player for New York in his breakout 2022-23 season, but on Saturday, he skated in the top six alongside Brock Nelson and Pierre Engvall.

After strong forechecking from No. 20, he hops on a loose puck. Realizing Nelson was coming in behind him, Fasching dropped the puck between his legs, and Nelson took care of the rest, deking to the front of the goal, beating Quick through the wickets:

Quote: "Felt him [Nelson] behind me," Fasching said. "I mean, incredible play by him after that."

After Arnaud Durandeau got the first chance alongside Bo Horvat and Mathew Barzal at camp, Simon Holmstrom was now getting an opportunity. 

While Holmstrom struggled to hit the net in the win, his cross-zone pass to Horvat with under three to play in the first gave the Islanders a 3-0 lead.

Horvat, in stride, faked as if he was going to cut to the front of the net, which forced Quick to drop. Doing his best Nelson impression, Horvat held onto the puck and circled behind the net before beating Quick to the glove-side post:

Quote: "He's kind of the guy that starts that whole thing," Horvat said on Holmstrom. "I mean, obviously Noah Dobson made a nice play to get it up to him, but for him to see me -- I was screaming for it -- and thankfully, he saw me because it's just always nice as a centerman to get the puck in full flight and obviously with lots of speed, it was nice to have him."

*The Islanders never posted a highlight of Kyle MacLean's behind-the-net pass to Cal Clutterbuck to make it 4-0. It was a heads-up play.

"Yeah [I saw him]. He's calling for it as well," MacLean said. "We did that a couple of times in the scrimmage. It's something we're looking for, I think, but yeah, he was pretty open. He's in a great spot. So I was lucky to find him."