Rangers 4, Islanders 2
Marian Gaborik scored for the fifth time in three games to secure his eighth 20-goal season of his career as the New York Rangers skated to a 4-2 home triumph over the New York Islanders on Thursday.
With his 20th goal, Gaborik is now tied with Chicago's Jonathan Toews and Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos for the NHL lead.
Brandon Dubinsky scored for the first time in 17 games, defenseman Michael Del Zotto also tallied and Martin Biron turned aside 24 shots for the Rangers, who have won three in a row and five of their last seven.
After P.A. Parenteau leveled the contest just 18 ticks into the second period, Gaborik regained the advantage for the Rangers just over 7 1/2 minutes later. Artem Anisimov won a faceoff in the offensive end and alertly fed a cross-slot feed to Gaborik, who backhanded the puck past Evgeni Nabokov to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead.
Del Zotto doubled the advantage 7 1/2 minutes later after sizing up a loose puck at the top of the left faceoff circle and rocketing a shot past Nabokov for his fourth goal of the season.
Matt Moulson trimmed the deficit back to one after cleaning up a rebound at 8:29 of the third period, but John Mitchell capped the scoring with an empty-net goal.
Coach Jack Capuano's club failed to complete a sweep of a three-game road trip and fell to 5-2-1 in its last eight games away from Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.