NHL

Islanders put on snow show to rally past Rangers

One month and one day ago, the Islanders’ season turned around in a game at the Garden. So on Tuesday night, back at the Garden, they stared down a 3-1 deficit to the Rangers and never flinched.

“I really think we controlled most of the game,” said John Tavares, the Islanders star who was speaking about his team, but could have been speaking about himself, putting on a superlative performance en route to a 5-3 win. “Even though we got down two goals early, we were the better team, just stuck with it and capitalized on our opportunities when we got them.”

If the Islanders are the better team, they have a long way to go before they prove it. Yet, there was hardly a better player on the ice than Tavares, who tallied three assists, making two great plays to set up Thomas Vanek’s game-winner with 4:38 remaining, and eclipsed the two goals of the Rangers’ opposing superstar, Rick Nash.

“I think we know these division games for us are so big,” said Tavares, whose 62 points are second in the league only to the Penguins’ Sidney Crosby. “We dug ourselves a hole, so any time we can take a regulation win in a division game, it’s important.”

That hole was hardly deeper than on Dec. 20, when the Islanders came into the Garden a beaten and beleaguered team. Yet, that day’s 5-3 win started a run of 12-5-0, getting the Islanders to 21-24-7 and once again sniffing the outside of the postseason conversation, five points out of a wild-card spot.

The Rangers, now at 27-22-3, have managed to pull themselves out of their own respective hole, coming in 11-3-1 in their past 15. Nevertheless, even after Nash scored twice in opening 11:07, getting his team-leading goal total to 16 with nine in the past nine games — and even after Chris Kreider’s power play goal midway through the second made it 3-1 and wiped out a goal from the Isles’ Matt Martin late in the first — the Rangers never held the momentum in this one.

“I don’t think [it felt like] it was a 3-1 game at the time,” Rangers captain Ryan Callahan said. “I thought they were controlling most of the game for a large amounts of it. We got off to that lead, but then we have to try and grab control of that hockey game. We need to up our intensity, our energy, for whatever reason we didn’t do it.”

No, it was the Isles who had the intensity in this one, and when they did make their requisite mistakes — of which there were plenty — Kevin Poulin managed to win the duel of the backup goalies against Cam Talbot. While Thomas Hickey and Colin McDonald beat Talbot to tie the game late in the second, when the third rolled around, it was Poulin standing firm against all 13 Rangers shots, even those in the frantic waning seconds with the Blueshirts’ net empty.

“It’s not starting to wear on me,” said Islanders coach Jack Capuano, who smiled, but whose words were belied by the weary look of his face.

His team had trailed in nine of the past 13 games, and yet in six of those games, with deficits of two or more, they came back for wins.

The Isles still are 5-11-3 in the Metropolitan Division, a number that recalls those dark days of November and early December probably more so than the players in the room. Yet, a couple more against the Rangers, and things might look a whole lot better.

“Winning,” said Vanek, “cures a lot of things.”