Rangers get best of Islanders again, move into tie with Red Wings for wild card spot

The stakes were higher than your normal Islanders-Rangers regular season hockey game. Monday’s winner would gain ground in the chase for a wild card spot; the sands in the playoff hourglass might be running out for the loser.

Will Cuylle and Will Borgen put the Rangers in front in the first period and J.T. Miller and Artemi Panarin finished things in the third as the Rangers beat the Islanders for the second time in a week, securing a 4-0 victory at Madison Square Garden. Igor Shesterkin made 21 saves to earn his fourth shutout of the season, and the second for the Rangers in two nights.

The victory pulled the Rangers (31-26-4, 66 points) into a tie with Detroit for the final wild card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. They have, however, played one more game than the Red Wings (30-24-6). They also earned their fourth win in their last five games.

The Islanders 27-26-7 (61 points), who had their two-game winning streak snapped, remained points five back of a playoff spot.

Each team has one game remaining before Friday’s trade deadline. The Islanders host the league’s top team, the Winnipeg Jets, on Tuesday night at UBS Arena. The Rangers host the No. 2 team in the league, the Washington Capitals, on Wednesday.

The Rangers were whistled for not one, but two too-many-men-on-the-ice penalties in the first period. After the first of those penalties had expired, the Islanders thought they had taken the lead when captain Anders Lee skated out of the right corner and fired a shot from a nearly impossible angle that hit Shesterkin and somehow squeaked through at 11:46.

But the Rangers challenged the play, alleging the Isles were offside entering the zone. Upon video review, the referees determined that Casey Cizikas had indeed crossed the blue line before the puck entered the zone, so the goal came off the board.

Then, at 15:03 of the period, Zac Jones’ wrist shot from the high slot hit the shaft of the Islanders’ Kyle Palmieri’s stick, popped up in the air and hit Cuylle’s helmet as he turned his head to avoid getting hit. As Ilya Sorokin (22 saves) slid to his right to play the original deflection, the puck popped over him on the other side. It was Cuylle’s 17th goal of the season.

Cuylle also played a pivotal part in the Rangers’ second goal, a shorthanded effort by Borgen with 44.9 seconds left in the period. Cuylle beat the Isles’ Noah Dobson to a loose puck just inside the Rangers blue line and chipped it out just before Dobson checked him hard to the ice. Sam Carrick collected the puck, drove into the Islanders’ zone and dropped a pass for Borgen, who snapped a shot over Sorokin’s left shoulder for his fourth goal of the season.

Miller’s goal, a two-on-one blast that went under Sorokin’s stick-side arm at 3:43 of the third, came 23 seconds after Palmieri just fired a wide angle shot past a diving Shesterkin and into the outside of the netting.

Islanders coach Patrick Roy pulled Sorokin for the extra skater with nearly eight minutes left and Panarin scored into the empty net with 5:09 remaining.