The Rangers are holding on to their playoff hopes by a thread.
A 9-2 win over the Islanders on Thursday night at UBS Arena may have staved off the Blueshirts’ elimination from playoff contention for the time being, but it is only delaying the inevitable, with the Canadiens set to play the Senators in Ottawa on Friday night and in need of only one point to end the Rangers’ season.
This victory may have come against a team that is seemingly just as disinterested as they are, but the Rangers managed to snap a three-game losing streak going into their final three games of the regular season.
Still, there are no feel-good wins when you’re no longer in control of your own destiny this time of year.
The fact that the Rangers swept the Battle of New York by a combined score of 23-5 this season, however, is perhaps the only silver lining to what still is a bleak situation.
The Isles, who also will be eliminated if the Habs get at least a point Friday night, have lost eight of their past 10 games.
Having been outscored 17-6 over their previous three games, the Rangers made sure to take care of this one in the first period Thursday night.
Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin was on his game and made 44 saves to help make it happen.
They sustained more offensive zone time in the opening frame than they had in over a week.
A commanding 4-0 lead going into the first intermission was the result.
Will Cuylle and the rest of his line with J.T. Miller and Mika Zibanejad set the tone early, outscoring their opponents 2-0 and outshooting them 6-3 while they were on the ice in the first period.
A drop pass from Cuylle to Miller led to a Zibanejad wrister that opened the scoring at the 3:15 mark. Cuylle then followed up on a rebound later in the period to snap a 10-game goal drought and give the Rangers a two-goal lead.
The Rangers later scored their second power-play goal in the last three games to go up 3-0, with Vincent Trocheck finessing a move to the net to bury just his fifth man-advantage goal of the season.
At the tail end of the period, however, the Islanders pulled off their best Rangers impression.
Trocheck entered the offensive zone with only former Rangers defenseman turned Islanders blueliner Tony DeAngelo in front of him. Artemi Panarin joined and knocked Trocheck’s feed into a wide-open net with 43.4 seconds left in the first.
Despite getting outshot 20-6 throughout the second period, the Rangers still maintained a sizable lead going into the second intermission.
Juuso Parssinen first extended the Rangers’ lead with his first goal/point since he was acquired from the Avalanche on March 1, burying the puck on a wraparound move for the 5-0 advantage.
The Islanders were able to avoid the shutout with a power-play goal from Maxim Tsyplakov, but the Rangers still chased goalie Marcus Högberg from the game, even if only temporarily.
Brett Berard’s first of two goals and first since March 2 forced Isles head coach Patrick Roy to pull Högberg in favor of Tristan Lennox, who made his NHL debut in relief after facing the Hartford Wolf Pack in the AHL just the night before.
After Berard netted his second of the game, Roy opted to put Högberg back in goal.
Alexis Lafrenière kept running the score up later in the third period.
The 2020 first-overall pick evaded Ryan Pulock during a 2-on-1 rush with Chris Kreider and buried it past Högberg.
A fluky goal from Panarin then capped the scoring on the night.
