If you wanted to sum up the state of the Battle of New York in one moment, you could do a lot worse than 14:59 of the first period Wednesday night.
There was Ondrej Palat, celebrating his first goal as an Islander one day after being traded across town from New Jersey.
There wasn’t Artemi Panarin, the highest-paid Rangers player, being held out of the match for roster management reasons as the Blueshirts seek to take the next step of their teardown by moving the Russian wing who chose Broadway over Long Island in 2019.
Emil Heineman (left), who scored later in the game, celebrates a goal by Ondrej Palat during the first period of the Islanders’ 5-2 win over the Rangers on Jan. 28, 2026 at UBS Arena. Robert Sabo for New York PostThere was the UBS scoreboard, showing the Rangers had just one shot on goal in nearly 15 minutes.
At least this time, they didn’t get shut out. The Islanders, though, took their third game of three against their rivals this season, tilting the ice all night long in cruising to a 5-2 win over the Rangers.
“I don’t judge my play on points,” Palat said after notching a goal and assist over 11:53 of ice time. “I’m happy I got a couple, but the team played well and that’s all that matters.”
“We’re used to having him score goals against us,” Jean-Gabriel Pageau said. “To have him on our side, we’re extremely happy.”
Access the Rangers beat like never before
Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Mollie Walker about the inside buzz on the Rangers.
tRY IT NOWThe injection of energy brought by the acquisitions of Palat and Carson Soucy — the latter of whom made his Islanders debut against the team he played for until Monday night — was evident all night long.
The Islanders played with the puck. They got below the hash marks and worked off the cycle, controlling proceedings all night long. Palat seemed to instantly click with Bo Horvat and Emil Heineman, the latter of whom had his most noticeable game in weeks, accounting for a number of dangerous looks before finally breaking through off Adam Pelech’s feed that made it 5-2 late in the third.
The third line of Anders Lee, Pageau and Simon Holmstrom was the Islanders’ best, though, with Holmstrom playing a starring role.
He fed Palat’s opening goal on the power play, scored just 1:11 later off Tony DeAngelo’s slick backdoor feed, then added a second power-play assist on a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing sequence on which the puck pinged from DeAngelo to Horvat to Holmstrom to Barzal before No. 13’s one-timer beat Spencer Martin across the crease.
Simon Holmstrom scored a goal on Spencer Martin during the first period of the Islanders’ win over the Rangers. Robert Sabo for New York PostThat made it 3-1 after the Islanders had failed to convert a two-minute 5-on-3 following the Rangers taking three penalties on one shift, with two of them going to Sam Carrick. Another emblematic moment for the Blueshirts.
“I thought the turning point was the three penalties on one shift,” Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said. “I’ve never seen that before.”
- CHECK OUT THE LATEST NHL STANDINGS AND ISLANDERS STATS
Of Holmstrom, and of DeAngelo, Islanders coach Patrick Roy used the same word: “Outstanding.”
DeAngelo, whose play has gone up a notch lately, was nothing short of terrific against his old club, his vision and passing at an elite level all night long.
Matt Rempe gets into a fight with Adam Pelech during the second period of the Rangers’ blowout loss to the Islanders. Robert Sabo for New York PostMika Zibanejad’s power-play one-timer briefly brought the Rangers within 2-1 at 13:12 of the second, but Barzal’s goal, followed 42 seconds later by Pageau jamming Marc Gatcomb’s rebound into the crease, quickly extended the Islanders lead back to 4-1.
David Rittich, who had quietly struggled for much of January, had a solid night in nets for the Islanders with 13 saves, though the Rangers scoring chances came few and far between.
“The last two games, I really feel like we played really well defensively, and I think that allows us to get the puck faster and get on the rush and create some offense because of it,” Roy said. “This is something we need to continue to do.”
Indeed, the second game in a row, this was more about the Islanders play in front of the goalie than it was about the goalie — an extremely positive sign.And for the third time in three games against the Rangers, this looked like a playoff team facing a last-place club.
Oh wait. That’s exactly what it was.






