NEW YORK _ Snow Can Stay. For one more day, anyway.
And if the Islanders played the Rangers more often, Garth Snow just might become GM for life.
As fan discontent over Snow's job performance bubbled over and even reached into the dressing room, the Islanders beat the Rangers for the sixth straight time on Thursday night, 3-0 at Barclays Center.
Jaroslav Halak made 50 saves and Mathew Barzal had three assists as the Islanders continued their domination over the refurbishing Rangers.
The Islanders (28-25-6, 62 points) are 3-0-0 against the Rangers (27-26-5, 59 points) this season and are 10-1-0 in the last 11 matchups. Halak is 13-1-0 in his last 14 head-to-head battles with Henrik Lundqvist.
Before it began, Rangers coach Alain Vigneault called the matchup "our biggest game of the year so far." But if not for some superb stops from Lundqvist, the final score could have approached the Islanders' 7-2 victory from the last time these teams met.
The Islanders were coming off a 4-1 loss to Columbus that ended with fans chanting "Snow Must Go" and coach Doug Weight lamenting the lack of oomph in the building. Weight backtracked the next day, saying he wasn't criticizing the fans, but meant the team didn't play well enough to get the joint jumping.
There were no such worries on Thursday as the sellout crowd of 15,795 was into the action from the get-go.
For one night, at least, fans' rabble-rousing against Snow took a back seat. It had reached fever pitch when a plan to crowd-source a "Snow Must Go" billboard near the Barclays Center raised nearly $6,000 by mid-day.
The organizers offered to send any overflow donations to a cancer charity supported by Islanders forward Anders Lee. But Lee issued a statement saying he would decline the donations because "I do not feel right accepting money from a movement I don't agree with." The billboard organizers later said they would donate any excess funds to the American Cancer Society.
The Islanders took a 1-0 lead at 4:53 of the first. Brady Skjei went off for tripping Jordan Eberle and Josh Bailey went top shelf 11 seconds into the power play. It was Bailey's 15th goal of the season.
Barzal assisted to give the rookie his 60th point in his 59th game. Barzal became the third Islanders rookie to reach 60 points to join Bryan Trottier (95 in 1976-77) and Mike Bossy (91 in 1977-78).
Barzal added another assist when Eberle scored his 20th at 15:06 of the second off a sustained mad scramble in front of Lundqvist to make it 2-0.
Barzal picked up his ninth point against the Rangers this season when he assisted on Thomas Hickey's goal at 3:57 of the third. Hickey took a feed from Barzal and flicked it in off Rangers center David Desharnais to give the Islanders a 3-0 advantage.
Desharnais had a goal overturned by replay three minutes later when it was ruled he kicked the puck in.
