Isles top Rangers for fifth straight
Bo Horvat notched a goal and an assist, Noah Dobson added two assists and the Islanders used a three-goal first period to propel them to a 4-2 win against the Eastern-Conference leading Rangers on Tuesday night.
Semyon Varlamov finished with 34 saves, Mike Reilly, Kyle Palmieri and Anders Lee also scored goals and the Islanders extended their winning streak to five games, inching closer to a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Chris Kreider and Long Island native Adam Fox scored power-play goals for the Rangers, and Igor Shesterkin made 25 saves, but the Rangers’ three-game winning streak ended.
Mika Zibanejad left the game in the third period following a collision with Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech and did not return.
The Islanders offense erupted in the opening frame, scoring three times in 9:26.
Reilly tossed a shot from the half wall toward the net and the puck deflected off Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren and past Shesterkin at 4:12. Mathew Barzal drove to the net, which created chaos in front of Shesterkin and led to the redirection.
Horvat doubled the Islanders lead when he deflected Dobson’s shot at 11:47.
Palmieri capped the first-period with his 27th goal of the season. Brock Nelson fired a shot wide but retrieved his own rebound and set up Palmieri for the tap-in at 13:38.
Barzal was awarded a penalty shot in the opening minutes of the first period but was unable to score.
The Rangers had three power-play chances in the middle frame, and connected on two.
Kreider redirected a shot from Panarin for the first goal and Fox sent a puck through traffic to cut the Islanders lead to 3-2. Kreider left the game briefly in the first period after he was clipped with a onetime blast from Zibanejad, but returned.
Panarin registered his 70th assist and became the second player in team history with multiple 70-assist seasons. Brian Leetch did it three times.
Dobson became the second defenseman in Islanders history to record 60 assists in a season, joining Denis Potivin, who accomplished the feat four times.
MAPLE LEAFS 5, DEVILS 2
Auston Matthews scored his 66th goal and inched closer to becoming the ninth player in NHL history to tally 70 in a season in leading the Maple Leafs to victory over the Devils on Tuesday night in Newark, ending the disappointing Devils’ playoff hopes.
A few hours before the game, the Devils announced that Jack Hughes would undergo season-ending shoulder surgery. Hughes was hurt in Sunday’s loss to Nashville.
Tuesday night, Mark Giordano and Tyler Bertuzzi scored in a 9-second span late in the the second period to give the Maple Leafs a 3-2 lead en route to their sixth win in seven games. Nicholas Robertson also scored and Joseph Woll stopped 18 shots.
Nico Hischier and Dawson Mercer scored for the Devils while Jake Allen made 32 saves.
Matthews 66th came on a shot from the circle that beat Allen at 7:33 of the final period. He has now scored in six straight games. Bertuzzi added his 21st of the season late.