Rangers gain point, but fall to Isles in OT shootout

2013 Game No. 13; Home Game No. 8	Rangers' Record: 7-5-1
VIDEO: TORTORELLA POSTGAME
• Full Highlights | Highlight of Game | Callahan, Biron		• Hagelin, Staal, Boyle | Melrose CU Save of Game
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GAME RECAP In a wild and exciting back-and-forth Valentines Day game at Madison Square Garden Thursday night, the Rangers let an early 2-0 lead slip away, losing to the Islanders 4-3 in a game decided by the shootout. The loss snapped the Rangers three-game win streak, as well as the Islanders five-game losing skid. Frans Nielesen and John Tavares scored for the Islanders in the opening two rounds of the shootout while the Rangers Marian Gaborik and Rick Nash were denied by Evgeni Nabokov as the Blueshirts fell to 7-5-1 on the season, though they did gain a valuable point in the standings. Martin Biron made his second start of the season in goal for the Rangers and finished with 28 saves. Carl Hagelin and Gaborik each scored a goal and added an assist for the Blueshirts, who peppered Nabokov with 39 shots. The Rangers raced out to a 2-0 lead and fired the first 10 shots of the game on goal before the Islanders recorded their initial shot on Biron nearly 14 minutes into the opening period. But then the Islanders opened the second period by scoring three goals on their first four shots to stun the Blueshirts and take a 3-2 lead before Hagelin scored a power play goal at 11:14 to make it 3-3. Dan Girardi opened the scoring at 3:36 of the first one-timing a Hagelin pass through a maze in front of Nabokov for his first goal of the season. An aggressive forecheck by Nash helped set the play in motion, with Hagelin then skating with the puck behind the net and wheeling a pass to the right circle for Girardi. The Rangers upped their lead to 2-0 at 11:28 when Gaborik hammered a rebound past a defenseless Nabokov after Brad Richards was stopped twice in-tight by the Isles goalie. • COMMENT ON BLUESHIRTS UNITED | PHOTO GALLERY

PHOTO OF THE GAME STATS OF THE GAME Carl Hagelin tallied a power play goal, added an assist and registered a game-high, seven shots on goal in 21:56 of ice time. He extended his point streak to three games (four goals, two assists over the span), including a career-high, three-game goal streak. THREE STARS (selected by newyorkrangers.com) 1. Gaborik 2. Hagelin 3. Girardi

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THE BIGGER PICTURE Head coach Tortorella and the players all acknowledged that the most significant thing to come out of this game was a point in the standings. The second-most important thing was a reminder you can never count out an opponent in hockey's best league.

RANGERS LEADERS Icetime -- Girardi (26:42) Shots -- Hagelin (7) Hits -- Boyle (8) Blocks -- Three players tied (3) Takeaways -- Girardi (3) Faceoffs -- Stepan (21)

NEW YORK RANGERS LINEUP VS. ISLANDERS
FORWARD LINES
Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
Carl Hagelin	Derek Stepan	Rick Nash
Marian Gaborik	Brad Richards	Ryan Callahan
J.T. Miller	Brian Boyle	Taylor Pyatt
Arron Asham	Jeff Halpern	Darroll Powe

DEFENSE PAIRINGS
Left Defense	Right Defense
Ryan McDonagh	Dan Girardi
Marc Staal	Anton Stralman
Michael Del Zotto	Matt Gilroy
Goaltenders: Martin Biron, Henrik Lundqvist Starting Lineup: Biron, Staal, Stralman, Hagelin, Stepan, Nash.

POWER PLAY UNITS
FORWARD LINES
Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
Rick Nash	Derek Stepan	Ryan Callahan
Carl Hagelin	J.T. Miller	Marian Gaborik

POINT MEN
Left Point	Right Point
Brad Richards	Girardi/Del Zotto
McDonagh/Staal	Anton Stralman

PENALTY KILLING UNITS
FORWARD UNITS
Forward	Forward
Ryan Callahan	Stepan/Boyle
Darroll Powe	Jeff Halpern

DEFENSE PAIRINGS
Left Defense	Right Defense
Ryan McDonagh	Dan Girardi
Marc Staal	Michael Del Zotto