The Rangers fail to comeback from a 3-0 hole; lose to Islanders 4-2.

The New York Rangers almost completed the three-goal comeback but fell 4-2 to the New York Islanders.

Igor Shesterkin stopped 25 of 28 shots faced in the losing effort. Semyon Varlamov picked up another win for the Islanders with 34 saves.

1:25 into the game Barzal was hooked by Fox on a breakaway, awarding him a penalty shot. Shesterkin made the save to keep the game scoreless as Barzal shot the puck to the glove side.

The Islanders struck first as Mike Reilly scored his sixth goal of the season 4:12 into the hockey game. Horvat won the puck back to Reilly who skated towards the net and was able to deflect it off of Ryan Lindgren’s stick and into the net. 

Horvat made it 2-0 in favor of the Islanders with 8:13 on the clock. Barzal sent the puck out to Dobson who fired a shot from the point that was tipped in by Horvat. 

1:51 later at the 13:38 mark, the Islanders went up 3-0. After Nelson missed the net on a pass across from Dobson and Shesterkin drifted out of the crease, he sent the puck in front where Palmieri tapped it into an open net.

At the intermission the Islanders led the Rangers 3-0. The Islanders also led the Rangers in shots with 18 to the Blueshirts 11.

Panarin rang the puck off the post with a one-timer a minute into the second. He was close to getting the Rangers on the board.

The Islanders took three penalties in a short stretch to give the Rangers a chance to go to work at what they do best, the power play.

The Rangers did find the back of the net eventually, as Chris Kreider tipped home his 39th goal of the season on the power play. It’s also his 18th goal on the man advantage this season.

Panarin took the initial shot that Kreider beautifully tipped past Varlamov while all by himself at the top of the crease, ending his shutout streak at the 7:47 mark of the second period. Zibanejad recorded the secondary assist.

Fox made it 3-2 with a goal similar to the play Kreider scored on. He shot it through traffic from the point, once again on the power play. Kreider and Trocheck assisted the goal with 4:59 to go in the middle period.

The first and third penalty taken by the Islanders resulted in power play goals for the Rangers to make the game close at 3-2.

That would be the score after 40 minutes, as the Rangers crawled back into the game with ten shots, the Islanders had eight.

Zibanejad left the game around the midway point of the third period after a scary collision with Adam Pelech. He crashed into him accidentally in the neutral with both players facing the Rangers end.

The Rangers killed off an Islanders power play from a slashing penalty taken by Barclay Goodrow with 7:34 to go.

There were many chances for the Rangers to tie it with an empty net in the final minutes, but the Islanders blocked them out.

After a crushing hit from Dobson on Trocheck, which the Rangers were irate about, Engvall cleared it out to Pageau, who sent it to Lee who buried it into the empty net for the Islanders, with 6 seconds left.

These teams will do battle for the fourth and final time this season on Saturday at 12:30 pm.