The Battle of New York wasn’t much of a battle at all last season, but the Rangers ensured the rivalry was restored to its proper glory Tuesday night.
After going winless against the Islanders in 2025-26, with their last victory coming two seasons ago on April 10, 2025, the Blueshirts renewed the intra-state competition with a 5-2 win, continuing an encouraging start to the new campaign.
The victory marked the Rangers’ fourth in a row and third straight at home.
On his draft night last year, Matthew Schaefer loudly proclaimed his desire to beat the Rangers every time he plays them. And in his first season in the league, the Isles’ first-overall pick delivered on it as his team outscored the Rangers 14-3 through four games.
Even though the Islanders didn’t make the playoffs either, they owned their rival Rangers.
The Blueshirts reestablished their position in the feud with another hearty effort that earned a convincing win.
In the face of an unexpected demotion to the fourth line the last two games, Oliver Bjorkstrand led the Rangers with two goals. Tye Kartye replaced Bjorkstrand on the left wing of the second unit after head coach Mike Sullivan liked what he saw from the tweak in Detroit last week.
Bjorkstrand still managed to make an impact and score go-ahead goals at both five-on-five and on the power play.
Giving the team some much needed insurance late in the game, Alexis Lafreniere scored two empty-net goals after recording a second-period goal for a hat trick.
The NHL promoted the fact that Tuesday night was the first Rangers-Islanders game to feature a teenage defenseman on both teams. Schaefer and the Rangers’ fifth-overall pick Alberts Smits happen to also be the two youngest defensemen in the entire league.
But the newest rookie in the Rangers lineup was Cole Beaudoin, who was recalled earlier in the day to make his NHL debut after Joe Veleno was placed on injured reserve with a lower-body injury.
Centering the fourth line between Jaroslav Chmelar and Bjorkstrand, Beaudoin logged 9:57 of ice time and won five of nine faceoffs in the win.
The Rangers have simply been ready to start games, a bare minimum requirement the team struggled mightily with last season.
In fact, through the first five contests of the season, the Rangers haven’t surrendered a single first-period score.
Only the Rangers were able to break through in the first 20 minutes, when Bjorkstrand blasted a loose puck right past Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov from the right circle for his first goal of the season.
The home team looked to be in complete control after Alexis Lafreniere made it a 2-0 game off a snipe while skating down the left side.
It took the Islanders just under two minutes, however, to storm their way back into it.
With Eeli Tolvanen in the box for hooking, Isles captain Bo Horvat buried a backdoor feed from Mattias Maccelli on the power play. Calum Ritchie was then left unattended as he crashed the net, waited Igor Shesterkin out and deposited the puck around the Rangers goalie to even the score.
A power-play score from Bjorkstrand, however, regained the lead for the Rangers later in the middle frame.
