NEW YORK (AP) — Will Cuylle and Will Borgen scored in the first period, Igor Shesterkin stopped 21 shots for his fourth shutout of the season, and the New York Rangers beat the crosstown-rival Islanders 4-0 on Monday night.
J.T. Miller and Artemi Panarin each had a goal and an assist for the Rangers, who have won four of five and got their second shutout in two nights.
Ilya Sorokin finished with 22 saves for the Islanders, who have lost five of seven.
The Rangers took a 1-0 lead on a lucky bounce with 4:57 left in the first period. Zac Jones fired a shot from the point that was deflected by the Islanders' Kyle Palmieri up in the air and bounced off Cuylle's helmet and in with Sorokin sliding to his right.
Borgen doubled the lead with a short-handed goal with 45 seconds left in the opening period as he got a drop pass from Sam Carrick and fired it past Sorokin for his fourth of the season.
Miller made it 3-0 when he beat Sorokin from the right side at 3:43 of the third.
The Islanders pulled Sorokin for an extra skater with 7:40 remaining, and Panarin scored an empty-netter with 5:09 to go for his 25th of the season.
Takeaways
Islanders: The Islanders have lost six of eight and remained five points out of a playoff spot.
Rangers: The Rangers are 7-3-0 in their last 10 games to pull into a tie with Detroit for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference. The Red Wings hold the tiebreaker with one game in hand.
Key moment
Anders Lee appeared to get the Islanders on the scoreboard first midway through the first period with a shot from a sharp angle. However, it was overturned after the Rangers challenged for offside.
Key stat
The Rangers had 22 blocked shots to help keep the Islanders off the board.
Up next
Islanders host league-best Winnipeg on Tuesday, and Rangers host Alex Ovechkin and Washington on Wednesday,
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
The Associated Press
