In Elmont, the New York Rangers came to the UBS Arena and handed the Islanders their seventh straight loss, third straight on home ice, 4-1, on Wednesday.
Igor Shesterkin made 20 saves in the Rangers win.
The Rangers improved to 12-4-3.
Andy Andreoff scored the lone Islanders goal.
Kevin Rooney and Chris Kreider hit for a pair of goals each in the Rangers win.
“They (Rangers fourth line) were great,” Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant said. “They did their job tonight, obviously. ‘Reavo’ made some great plays, Rooney got a couple of goals and Goodrow was great. They were obviously the key to our win tonight. Our fourth line was the difference.”
Kreider scored once off the power play.
The Islanders were scoreless in six power play chances. The Rangers hit for one goal in five chances with the extra man.
“We just want to create momentum for the team,” Rooney said of his line. “If the pucks go in, they go in. We had a game a couple weeks ago in Columbus (a 5-3 win on Nov. 13) where we played really well, but they didn’t go in for us. It was still a strong game. We’re just trying to be consistent. When they go in, hopefully they come in bunches.”
The Islanders dropped to 5-9-2.
“It’s tough,” the Islanders’ Casey Cizikas said. “We’re working. That’s the thing, we’re working hard, we’re trying to get in those spots, they’re just not falling for us right now. I think that’s the frustrating thing, guys are working, guys are trying.”
Ryan Reaves had two assists for the Rangers, the first time he has done that in his NHL career.
“I don’t think he (Gallant) was throwing us out there expecting us to go score,” Reaves said. “But I think he’s expecting us to play with energy, get the puck deep, kind of have a bump up shift and draw some momentum off that. It’s just a bonus that we put one in.”
Semyon Varlamov made 17 saves in the Isles loss.
“It doesn’t matter what lineup we put out there, you’re in the NHL, you can either get it done or you can’t,” Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said. “The only things we can control right now are our work ethic, our systematic detail, our commitment and our attitude. Our work ethic was fine, our systematic detail was good for the most part. We had one or two breakdowns, but we managed most of it. We’re just not getting a break when we need it. We battled.”
The Islanders are icing a MASH unit with Anders Lee, Josh Bailey, Adam Pelech, Andy Greene and Zdeno Chara on NHL COVID-19 protocol.
“We’ve got to find a way to win a hockey game with a less than ideal situation,” Trotz said. “No one is going to feel sorry for us and I sure hope we’re not feeling sorry for ourselves. If that’s the case, I’m disappointed in our group. But I don’t see that, so I’m not worried.”
Kieffer Bellows, Ross Johnston, Brock Nelson, Noah Dobson. and Ryan Pulock are out of the lineup with injuries.
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