Carson Soucy and rookie Matthew Schaefer scored 95 seconds apart late in the second period as the visiting New York Islanders completed a season sweep of the rival New York Rangers with a 2-1 victory on Thursday.
The Islanders outscored the Rangers 14-3 in the four games, including a 7-1 margin in Madison Square Garden and went ahead after generating few chances until their defensemen scored.
Playing his second game since being acquired from the Rangers to shore up the Islanders’ defense corps, Soucy scored his first goal since Dec. 2 with 2:42 left in the second following a giveaway by Rangers’ forward Taylor Raddysh along the right boards.
Raddysh lost the puck to Max Shabanov, who passed to Scott Mayfield at the right point. Shabanov cut through the slot, got the puck and quickly passed to Soucy, who sent a sharp angle shot from the bottom of the left circle over goalie Jonathan Quick as Rangers’ defenseman Braden Schneider and Marc Gatcomb jostled for position.
Schaefer scored his 14th goal and first in eight games following another Rangers’ giveaway.
After defenseman Matthew Robertson lost the puck in front of the net, Bo Horvat made a clean pass from the right point to Schaefer. Schaefer had ample time to get a shot from the upper part of the left circle over Quick.
Mika Zibanejad scored a power-play goal 2:48 into the third on a slap shot from the left circle but the Rangers dropped to 2-9-1 in their past 12 games and fell to 6-14-4 at home.
The Rangers also held out Artemi Panarin for roster management and are expected to sit the pending unrestricted free agent through at least the Olympic break ahead of a possible trade by the March 6 deadline.
Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin made 20 saves, including a point-blank stop on rookie Gabe Perreault with about 10 minutes left in the third.
Quick finished with 19 saves.
–Field Level Media
