A Terrific hockey game took place at the Coliseum last night, a throwback installment of the Battle of New York between the Rangers and Islanders, a physical match played with pace and passion from start to finish in a Coliseum that rocked in unison with the athletes.
“Fun game,” Henrik Lundqvist said after the Blueshirts recorded their fourth straight victory, this 2-1 in overtime. “The crowd was great, the play was intense.
“It felt good to be a part of.”
For the first time this year, it feels as if the Rangers are on a roll, building from one game to the next, establishing a foundation off which to springboard from the margins of the playoffs to the upper-echelon of the East.
“It’s coming,” said Derek Stepan, who was strong on his skates and the puck all night. “It’s coming.”
It is, of course, no coincidence that this winning streak has coincided with Rick Nash’s return after a four-game absence during which the club could not win a game, going 0-3-1.
And it was The Big Easy whose deflection of Stepan’s long one finally beat Evgeni Nabokov at 14:37 of the third to tie the game after the Rangers had trailed since 11:51 of the first.
“Rick being the player he is just stepped up again,” Stepan said. “He has so many special attributes, it’s amazing.”
Nash tied it and then Marian Gaborik, one of the NHL’s most accomplished finishers, perhaps you had forgotten, finished it by driving a 40-footer from the top through both a Ryan Callahan screen and Nabokov on the power play just 42 second into OT.
If you had forgotten about the scoring prowess of Gaborik, sixth in the NHL in goals since his arrival on Broadway for the 2009-10 season, you’re excused. Fact is, The Great Gabby hadn’t scored in eight straight and had two goals in his last 16 while scoring in just four of the Blueshirts’ first 21 games.
“It’s been a little bit frustrating, but I’ve tried to stay positive,” Gaborik said. “But it definitely helps to score a goal.”
Gaborik has been shifted both to left wing after a career on the right side and around the lineup even more than usual by coach John Tortorella, who doesn’t necessarily seem to believe No. 10 has a place among his top six forwards when the club is healthy.
Gaborik has skated on a second unit with J.T. Miller the last two games while Brad Richards recuperates from his trip into the boards last Sunday, but the winger had opened the previous pair on a third line centered by Brian Boyle.
“It is what it is, but I’m not complaining,” Gaborik told The Post. “It’s a little bit different for me, but whatever it takes for us to win and to balance out the lines, I’ll do whatever I can to be at my best.”
The Rangers matched the Ryan McDonagh-Dan Girardi pair against the John Tavares-Matt Moulson-Brad Boyes combination as much as possible. Tortorella ponied up on the Nash-Stepan-Carl Hagelin and Gaborik-Miller-Callahan units in the third, rolling those two lines for 15 of the period’s 19 shifts into the tying goal.
“We were in their faces all game and I think that made the difference in the third,” McDonagh said. “When you’re playing against a player as good as Tavares, you want to force him and his line to play in their own zone as much as possible.”
The Islanders put up a noble effort. It wasn’t quite good enough. It doesn’t mean they’re going away even if this victory on top of Tuesday’s triumph over the Flyers leads you to believe the Rangers finally have it going.
“We have a long way to go and we have to stay on an even keel,” McDonagh said. “But we’re getting a real good feeling about ourselves.”