Rangers fall to Islanders 3-2

Great game out on Long Island tonight, as the Islanders edged the Rangers 3-2. The game featured four extremely pretty goals, three from the Islanders. Fedotanko, Hunter and Satan scored for the Islanders and Drury and Mara scored for the Rangers.

Passion was all over the place tonight, but surprisingly, there were no fighting majors. With Avery, Orr, Hollweg, Simon, Witt and Jackman all on the ice tonight, I thought fights were imminent. But they played good clean hockey for the most part.

Refereeing was great for almost every part of the game. I thought the elbow on Prucha by Sutton should have been called, even if he did miss the hip check. Prucha then went back and boarded him, and deserved the two minutes he got in the box, but the first one should have been called too. Other than that, there were minimal stick infractions, and the guys in stripes let the two teams play.

Goaltending was spectacular tonight from both sides. Lundqvist had no chance on any of those goals, and DiPietro made some crucial saves at the end of the game.

Defense was again good for the Rangers, but it wasn't as good as it usually is. Strudwick almost had a turnover turn into real trouble in the second period, but other than that, there was nothing glaring.

Good game all around. It was fun to watch. The Rangers play again on Thursday, when they host the Penguins. I expect Lundqvist in net for that one or Saturday's game at Toronto, but not both. Malik may be back at sometime over the next couple of games as well. Back on Thursday unless any major news breaks.