Well, it could have been worse, a lot worse for the New York Rangers on Sunday.
They trailed by two after the opening frame in Uniondale, 2-0, to the Islanders.
Kyle Palmieri and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored for the Isles in the frist for the 2-0 lead.
“You’re surrounded by great players up and down this lineup,” Palmieri said. “There’s guys that make an impact every night. When you come to a team like that and you’re surrounded by guys like that, it’s easy to kind of raise your game and try to fit in.”
The Rangers rallied for two goals in the second period, but Ryan Pulock potted his first marker of the season for a 3-2 win for the Islanders.
“Throughout my career, I’ve been able to score a little bit and to kind of go through a little slump like that, it’s tough,” Pulock said. “As the games went on it got tougher, but I knew I just needed to get that one. Obviously it came in a big moment, and I’m excited about that.”
Ilya Sorokin made 24 saves to get the win.
The loser’s points enabled the Rangers to ull even with the Philadelphia Flyers, who lost to the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday.
“We knew that they were going to come after we beat them 4-1 [on Friday],” the Rangers’ Brendan Smith said. “They came out hot. I don’t think we weathered the storm as well as we wanted to. We talked about it in the room, that they were going to come. I don’t think we were flat, but we just didn’t bring it.”
Boston leads both the Flyers and Rangers by four points, with two games in hand.
Libor Hajek and Smith got the Rangers even with two goals in the middle frame.
“I thought we did a lot of good things,” Smith said. “At this time, points are good. We want two, but we’re trying to get back into the hunt and get into that playoff spot, so we’ll take the points.”
Vitali Kravtsov picked us his first NHL on an assist on Smith’s goal.
“He’s playing with confidence,” Rangers head coach David Quinn said of Kravtsov. “It’s growing each game.”
Igor Shesterkin made 29 saves. in the loss.
“I certainly liked a lot about our second and third period,” Quinn said. “Disappointing we didn’t get the two points, but every point’s life and death right now. We’ve got to be better 3-on-3; [that’s] something we’ll probably work on here in the next practice. But I liked that we bounced back after a tough first period.”
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