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Monday, Oct. 11 7:30pm ET
Quintal's goal pushes Rangers | |||||
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UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) -- The New York Rangers may not be able to score on the power play. There's nothing wrong with them otherwise, though. Stephane Quintal's tie-breaking slap shot from the right point with 2:46 to go lifted the Rangers to a 4-2 win over the New York Islanders on Monday night.
The Islanders, who trailed 2-0 before tying the game with 7:26 left, suffered their sixth straight loss to their rivals. "It's disheartening for the whole team to work that hard and to fight back, only to have that happen," Islanders defenseman Jamie Heward said. "They got a couple of breaks and bounces and that was the game." The Islanders were outplayed in the first period and outshot 15-4, including four shots by the Rangers during a 90-second, two-man advantage. But goaltender Felix Potvin turned everything aside. "Potvin played excellent the whole game, especially on the five-on-three," Rangers forward Adam Graves said. "We're not happy with the lack of success on the power play right now." The Rangers are 3-for-33 for the season, and 0-for-17 on the road. Potvin was happy with the way the first period ended. "My defense played great in front of me, especially on their power play," Potvin said. "They must have blocked about five or six shots." The Rangers got their first fortuitous bounce two minutes into the second period when Kevin Stevens sent a cross-ice pass on the rush towards a teammate. The puck bounced off the leg of Islanders defenseman Jamie Rivers and past Potvin. The Rangers went up 2-0 at 7:25 when Todd Harvey followed up Mike Knuble's breakaway and Potvin's save by sweeping the loose puck into the open net. "The puck just laid there, and I banged it in," Harvey said. Brad Isbister cut the lead to 2-1 at 9:42 on his own breakaway, beating goalie Kirk McLean with a backhander to the short side. The Islanders tied the game with 7:26 left in the third when Heward put a one-timer past McLean with his team on a power play. Heward figured in Quintal's game-winner. He and Stevens were battling for position in front of Potvin when Quintal fired a slap shot that got past Stevens, Heward and Potvin. The Islanders argued that Stevens interfered with Potvin, but to no avail. "I didn't interfere with anybody," Stevens said. "I was driving to the net and (Heward) was trying to pick me off. There's no crease rule any more, so it's as much my ice as it is his." Heward said that the goal was just one of those things. "If it had been an inch or two to the left, it wouldn't have gone in," Heward said. "And if it had been an inch or two to the right, it wouldn't have gone in, either. That's the way it goes sometimes." Theoren Fleury added an empty-net goal with 22.8 seconds left. The goal was his 376th, putting him 71st overall on the NHL goal scoring list. Fleury moved past Butch Goring, currently the Islanders coach. "It's pretty exciting to get a win without a power play goal," Stevens said. Goring was proud of the way his team played. "When it was all over, the Rangers won," Goring said. "But they know they played in a very good game." | ALSO SEE NHL Scoreboard NY Rangers Clubhouse NY Islanders Clubhouse RECAPS Colorado 3 Boston 3
NY Rangers 4 AUDIO/VIDEO   Kevin Stevens beats Felix Potvin for the goal. (Courtesy: NHL/Fox Sports Net New York)avi: 662 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1   | |||||
