For the people who think that the rivalry between the New York Rangers and the New York Islanders is dead, their last matchup against one another proved otherwise. For the most part, the Islanders haven’t been able to gain any momentum over the Rangers in their season series. This all changed on Monday, Apr. 13.

The Islanders have had an up and down season, which isn’t anything out of the blue for them. Last season, it came down to the very last game to determine whether they would be in the playoffs or not and it’s the same story this time around. On the other hand, the Rangers have been dominant all season as they were the first team to clinch the playoffs. Additionally, they have remained in first place in the Metropolitan division from the start of the season, which isn’t so easy.

On Monday, Apr. 13 the Rangers took a trip to UBS Arena in the heart Long Island to play the Islanders. This game was a prime example of what a playoff game will look like as the refs weren’t making all the calls and emotions were heightened. The Islanders came into this game on a 4-game heater, and they were looking to extend that streak. In the first period of the game, the Islanders would score 3 goals to give them a tremendous lead quickly. During the second period, the Rangers would strike back scoring 2 goals on the powerplays. The game started to slow down here as the score remained the same through the third period.

Since the Rangers were trailing by a goal, they obviously made the decision to pull their goalie. The Rangers now had the advantage and the Islanders had to lock them down defensively. With just about 15 seconds left, Noah Dobson had shoved Vincent Trocheck into the boards as it seemed to be a missed call by the refs, which was happening all game. This led to Anders Lee scoring an empty net goal for the Islanders making the final score 4-2.