RANGERS 4, ISLANDERS 1 Isles split home-and-home with the Blueshirts

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A sellout crowd of 16,234 watched the Islanders lose 4-1 in the back-end of their home-and-home series to the Rangers, Thursday night at the Nassau Coliseum. The Rangers scored two goals in the opening period and never looked back to split the two-game mini-series with the Islanders.

"They took it to us in that first period," said head coach Ted Nolan. "We just need a better effort. We just didn't do it in the first period. We did it a little bit in the second, but in the third we didn't do it again."

Henrik Lundqvist made 26 saves for his 30th win of the season. Sean Avery scored two goals, while Scott Gomez and Brendan Shanahan chipped in with a goal each.

Sean Bergenheim scored the lone goal for the Islanders. Wade Dubielewicz made his third consecutive start, making 24 saves in the losing effort.

"I thought Dubie did well," said Nolan. "He had a breakaway against him, then a re-direction on the second and third. It certainly wasn't Dubielewicz's fault. He played a strong game and kept us in. Rick will have two practices under his belt and he'll run with it from here on in."

Shanahan made it 1-0 on a breakaway at 1:29 of the first period. Nigel Dawes fed Shanahan who went to the blocker side. The Rangers went up 2-0 on Avery's one-timer with 6:35 remaining in the opening frame.

"We just played poorly in our own end," said captain Bill Guerin. "Our effort in the first wasn't where it had to be. In game's this big, you can't have two point-blank shots like that. Those are mental breakdowns and it killed us."

The Islanders squandered a glorious opportunity to get on the board with a 5-on-3 advantage for 50 seconds, early in the second period. The power play was 0-for-5 in the game.

"The power play is awful," said a disgusted Guerin. "We've tried to figure it out and do different things every game, but it's just awful."

Bergenheim ultimately cut the lead to 2-1 with his second goal against the Rangers this week. Miroslav Satan fed Bergenheim, who had his wrist shot deflect off of a pair of skates before sliding through the legs of Lundqvist with 9:26 to go in the second period.

Marc Staal's shot from the point deflected off Gomez and past Dubielewicz, 1:12 into the third period to increase the Rangers' advantage to 3-1.

While shorthanded, Avery capped off the scoring with an empty-net goal. The Islanders managed only three shots in the third period.

The Islanders will face the eighth-place Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday at the Wachovia Center in an important four-point game.

Five Stars of the Game:
1. Henrik Lundqvist: Allowed only one goal on 27 shots
2. Scott Gomez: Scored an important third-period goal, flying all night, +2
3. Sean Avery: Two goals
4. Sean Bergenheim: Hustled all night, goal, 4 hits
5. Brendan Shanahan: Set the tone early with his breakaway goal

Stat of the Game: The Rangers won 63% of the draws.

Slapshots: The Islanders dropped to 6-3-1 in sellouts this season…The Islanders and Rangers will play another home-and-home series on April 3 and 4 to close out the season…Wade Dubielewicz lost for the first time against the Rangers (2-1-0).

Kickbutt Fans of the Game: Angelo and Shannon are from Patchogue. Angelo lists his favorite Islander as Mike Comrie, while Shannon said she's a big fan of Rick DiPietro. The two have been Islanders fans for seven years.

Game Operations: The famous Nathan's Hot Dog race paid a visit to the Coliseum ice. Sparky defeated Frankster and Mrs. Cringles for the victory…The ever-popular Chicken Dance made its triumphant return… The Gerstman Family was tonight's Commerce Bank Hometown Hereo. The Gerstman Family founded the not-for-profit organizatioN, THE Lisa Beth Gerstman Foundation in 2003 to help bring the dream of summer camp to physically disabled children in the New York area.



ISLANDERS
Goaltenders
34 Wade Dubielewicz
39 Rick DiPietro

Defensemen
32 Brendan Witt - 24 Radek Martinek
44 Freddy Meyer - 3   Rob Davison
4   Bryan Berard – 2 Aaron Johnson

Forwards
11 Andy Hilbert - 89 Mike Comrie - 13 Bill Guerin
26 Ruslan Fedotenko - 63 Josef Vasicek – 7 Trent Hunter
20 Sean Bergenheim – 10 Richard Park – 81 Miroslav Satan
15 Jeff Tambellini – 72 Jeremy Colliton – 57 Blake Comeau

RANGERS
Goaltenders
30 Henrik Lundqvist
40 Stephen Valiquette

Defensemen
8  Marek Malik - 3   Michal Rozsival
18 Marc Staal - 55 Christian Backman
5  Daniel Girardi - 51 Fedor Tyutin

Forwards
68 Jaromir Jagr - 17 Brandon Dubinsky - 16 Sean Avery
82 Martin Straka - 23 Chris Drury - 24 Ryan Callahan
10 Nigel Dawes - 19 Scott Gomez - 14 Brendan Shanahan
20 Fredrik Sjostrom - 15 Blair Betts - 25 Petr Prucha

Additional reporting by Adam Baruch, Andrew Scharff and Chris Musto



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