It is very early in the NHL season, of course. But the Metropolitan Division standings entering Thursday night's Islanders-Rangers game at Madison Square Garden were unsightly.
Last place: Rangers. Next-to-last place: Islanders.
Then they played the game. Net result: There was no change at the very bottom.
The Islanders' entertaining, action-filled 4-3 shootout victory in the teams' first meeting this season improved their record to 3-3-1 while the Rangers fell to 1-5-2.
It was the Islanders' ninth victory in their past 11 visits to the Garden.
The Islanders won the shootout, 2-1, on a score by John Tavares in the second round. Jaroslav Halak stopped David Desharnais to seal the win.
Trailing 3-1 after two periods, the Rangers dominated the third, first coming within one goal on a score by Mats Zuccarello and then seeming to tie it with 7:53 left on a goal by Brendan Smith. But the goal was waved off when it was ruled that Smith had directed the puck past Halak with a kicking motion. The puck caromed off both of Smith's skates and never hit his stick.
No matter. With 5:54 left in the third, Kevin Hayes rushed up the ice by himself and sneaked the past Halak on the short side from a complicated angle, and suddenly it was 3-3.
Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist made two saves on Josh Bailey in the final five seconds of regulation, the second while lying on his side.
The Islanders opened the scoring with an encouraging sign: their first power-play goal of the season in their 21st try.
Apparently it was a good idea for the Islanders to spend so much time on that in practice on Wednesday. Apparently it also was a good idea for coach Doug Weight to dress Ryan Pulock as an addition to the unit.
It was Pulock whose soft shot bounced off Lundqvist's left pad and onto the stick of Anders Lee, who stuffed the puck home 2:40 into the game with Chris Kreider off for hooking. Make that 1-for-21 on the power play.
The Rangers tied it 5:02 into the first period when Desharnais tipped Kevin Shattenkirk's shot from the right point past Halak.
A mere 64 seconds later, the Islanders regained the lead when Brock Nelson whistled a wrist shot from the slot past Lundqvist's stick side.
It was a shocking start for two teams that had struggled to score early in the season. Before Thursday, the Isles had scored three first-period goals in six games.
Halak entered 6-1 in his past seven head-to-head matchups against Lundqvist and 7-3 overall against the Rangers, with a 2.39 goals-against average.
Before the game, Weight said it was no accident he went with Halak. "He's got a lot of confidence against this team and in this building," Weight said. "That definitely has something to do with the decision, for sure."
The Isles took a 3-1 lead 1:15 into the second period on a nifty goal by Mathew Barzal _ the first of his NHL career. The 20-year-old sped down the left side and tucked the puck under Lundqvist from a sharp angle.
The Rangers drew within 3-2 at 3:29 of the third when Zuccarello scored off a play that began with Lee turning over the puck to Brendan Smith at the blue line.
Before the game, coach Alain Vigneault said he thought the Rangers were not far from turning things around, saying, "I don't want to overanalyze our game because I think we're doing a lot of good things right now."
