Two games against the Islanders this season have resulted in nothing but blanks fired by the Rangers.
Ilya Sorokin shut them out in November at the Garden, and with him injured this time around, veteran backup David Rittich did the honors with 27 saves to send the Rangers to a 2-0 loss Saturday night at UBS Arena.
It marked the eighth shutout suffered by the Rangers already over their middling first 40 games (19-17-4), putting them halfway to the NHL record of 16 by the 2006-07 Blue Jackets.
“It feels like everything,” Artemi Panarin said when asked what was not working offensively, particularly on the power play, which finished 0-for-3. “We gotta score one at least, especially with a couple of power plays late in the game.
“I feel like we’ve recovered pretty well after that kind of games, but when we go on the ice, we’re not thinking, ‘Oh, we have eight games already without a goal.’ But it’s frustrating. We’re doing that over and over this year. I don’t know, we gotta fix everything.”
Unlike their 5-0 pasting by Sorokin and the Islanders on Nov. 8 at the Garden, the Rangers had their chances in this one.
Carson Soucy’s giveaway behind the net resulted in a shot by Mathew Barzal and then a rebound cleanup by Isles captain Anders Lee for a 1-0 visiting deficit just 58 seconds into the match.
Add in an early trip by Vladislav Gavrikov on Barzal a few minutes later for the game’s first power play opportunity, and the Rangers didn’t even manage a shot on goal over the first 11:25, when Will Cuylle finally put a puck on Rittich while crashing the net off a 2-on-1 rush.
The Rangers finally picked up their play from there, finishing the period with a 10-7 deficit in shots, including a gobbled up stop by Rittich on a one-timer from the left circle by Vincent Trockeck in the closing seconds.
“From the first shift, from the drop of the puck, they were quicker to pucks, they were harder on pucks. I thought after the first eight or nine minutes, we started to play. From there on in, I thought we were fine,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “We had a fair amount of [chances], a couple of 2-on-1s, a breakaway.
“Is there ever enough offense? Probably not. We always wish for and want more. But we didn’t finish obviously on the ones we had tonight.”
Panarin was denied by Rittich in alone after sneaking behind the Islanders defense following a killed-off penalty before the midpoint of the second.
The Rangers finally were granted their first man advantage shortly thereafter when Adam Pelech interfered with Panarin. Cuylle initially appeared to net the equalizer, but a video review showed the puck hit the crossbar and did not cross the goal line.
Rittich even stopped a penalty shot midway through the final period against Soucy, who had been slashed from behind by Cal Ritchie. The Rangers also were granted two power-play opportunities in the final 5:19, including 6-on-4 time with Igor Shesterkin pulled for an extra attacker.
But once again, it was to no avail, as Simon Holmstrom sealed it with an empty-netter.
“I thought other than the first half of that first period, when they came out better than we did, it was a tight game. But we have to find a way to score to win games. We didn’t do that today,” Mika Zibanejad said. “We had chances at the end on our power play, but we couldn’t get it done.”
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