Andrew Ladd scored in the second period and Jaroslav Halak stopped 36 shots to lead the New York Islanders to a 4-2 victory over the crosstown-rival Rangers on Tuesday night.
John Tavares, Jason Chimera and Scott Mayfield also scored at the Barclays Center to help the last-place Islanders improve to 4-0-1 in their last five games.
Jimmy Vesey and Marc Staal scored for the Metropolitan Division-leading Rangers and Henrik Lundqvist finished with 28 saves. The Rangers have alternated wins and losses in regulation in their last eight games.
Halak beat Lundqvist for the ninth time in their last 10 matchups. Halak had won eight straight - including the last five after joining the Islanders before the 2014-15 season - before Lundqvist ended the streak in the Rangers' 5-3 win in the season opener Oct. 13 at Madison Square Garden. Lundqvist is now 1-6-1 in his last eight against the Islanders.
The Rangers went 0 for 6 on the power play, including a 6-on-3 advantage with Lundqvist pulled over the final 32 seconds.
Trailing 2-0, the Rangers halved deficit 56 seconds into the second period. Rick Nash's shot from the high slot was stopped by Halak, but as Kevin Hayes was tangled with the Islanders' Travis Hamonic in front, Vesey skated up and knocked it on the left side for the rookie's ninth.
The Islanders restored their two-goal lead 1:22 later when Shane Prince drove the net, skated around the Rangers' Brady Skjei before Lundqvist poked the puck away. However, it went right to Ladd, who fired it in for his third.
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Staal pulled the Rangers to 3-2 as he took a pass from J.T. Miller on a 4-on-2 rush and fired it by Halak from the right faceoff dot for his third at 8:54. The assist gave Miller a team-high 20 points on the season.
Tavares restored the Islanders' two-goal lead off a pass from Josh Bailey from the top of the right faceoff circle on the power play for his seventh with 8:47 left in the third.
The Islanders were outshot 16-9 in the first period but took a 2-0 lead into the intermission, silencing the seemingly even-split contingent of Rangers fans among the sell-out crowd of 15,795 in Brooklyn.
Mayfield got his first goal of the season in his third game. Cal Clutterbuck knocked the puck from in front toward the boards along the right faceoff circle, and Mayfield stepped up and fired a slap shot in while Anders Lee was screening Lundqvist at 7:03.
The Rangers' Matt Puempel was down on the ice for several minutes after taking a high stick from the Islanders' Brock Nelson, who was whistled for a double-minor. The Rangers controlled the play for most of the four-minute power-play, firing eight shots at Halak, who stopped them all.
Just as the penalty was expiring, Chimera brought the puck up the ice, waited for Nelson to join the play out of the box and sent the puck to him at the right side. Nelson skated up and fired a shot that bounced around in front, and Chimera knocked it in with 2:36 left for his fourth of the season and third in four games.
NOTES: The Rangers were without F Michael Grabner, the team-leader with 13 goals, while the former Islander was back in Austria for his grandmother's funeral. ... Rangers F Pavel Buchnevich (back) missed his 12th straight game, and C Mika Zibanejad (broken fibula) his eighth in a row. ... Rangers F Marek Hrivik played one day after being recalled from Hartford of the AHL. ... The Islanders improved to 8-1-2 when scoring at least three goals, 7-0-1 when leading after two periods, and 7-1-3 when scoring first. ... D Mayfield was called up from Bridgeport of the AHL to take the place of Johnny Boychuk, who was scratched due to flu-like symptoms. ... The Islanders had their second sellout of the season, and first since the opener against Anaheim on Oct. 16.
UP NEXT
Rangers: At Winnipeg on Thursday night in the middle game of a three-game road swing.
Islanders: Host St. Louis on Thursday night in the finale of a three-game homestand.
