In their preseason debut, the New York Islanders' new top line performed as expected.
NEW YORK, NY -- The New York Islanders' new top line dominated in their first showing, but it wasn't enough as they fell 6-4 to the cross-town rival New York Rangers after leading 4-1 in the third.
Here's how it happened.
The Islanders and Rangers went scoreless in the first period, but there was some action.
Scott Mayfield collided with Rangers forward Filip Chytil -- a tad bit of a knee-to-knee, sending No. 72 to the room, unable to skate off under his own power.
Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren fought Mayfield, earning himself a two-minute instigating penalty, a five-minute penalty for fighting, and a 10-minute misconduct.
The Islanders' new top line of Anthony Duclair, Bo Horvat, and Mathew Barzal was buzzing.
They created scoring chances and made it difficult for the Rangers to escape their zone.
Barzal was stoned twice by Rangers star netminder Igor Shesterkin.
While the Islanders' power play went 0-for-2, their penalty kill looked strong.
Hudson Fasching made a strong stick check to clear the zone, and Kyle MacLean intercepted a neutral zone pass.
Then came the second period, where the Islanders scored the game's first two goals.
At 3:41 of the second, Barzal and Duclair exchanged passes on an odd-man rush before Barzal buried:
Then, 40 seconds later, at 4:21 of the second, Grant Hutton sent what seemed to be a harmless shot toward goal, but the puck bounced off Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad and in to make it a 2-0 game:
Fasching and Dennis Cholowski recorded the assists.
The Islanders weren't done scoring in the middle frame, as Barzal netted his second of the period at 15:$8 of the second to give his team a 3-0 lead.
Off the rush, Barzal's shot hit off the post before bouncing off Rangers goaltender Jonathan Quick and in:
Duclair earned his second primary assist of the night. Noah Dobson recorded the secondary assist.
At 6:06 of the third, Zac Jones beat goaltender Henrik Tikkaken five-hole on a breakaway to get the Rangers on the board, making cutting their deficit to 3-1:
Horvat got the goal back, beating Quick off the rush at 7:24 of the third to give the Islanders their three-goal lead back:
The goal was unassisted, but with that goal, all members of the top line recorded at least a point:
The Rangers made it a 4-2 game with 6:10 to play in the third as Chytil buried from the low slot on the power play.
And then the Rangers took over.
They scored two goals in 39 seconds to take a 5-4 lead, first Chris Kreider to the game and then Adam Edstrom with the winning dagger with 38 seconds to play in regulation.
Kreider added an empty-net goal with 11 seconds to play to seal the deal.
The Islanders now move to 1-1-0 in preseason. They'll head to Philadelphia to play the Flyers on Thursday night at 7 PM ET.
LINES:
Duclair-Horvat-Barzal
Martin (PTO)-Cizikas-Fasching
Liukas-MacLean-Engvall
Dufour-Karlstrom-Foudy
Romanov-Dobson
Odelius-Mayfield
George-Hutton
Varlamov
Tikkanen