The Rangers may have fallen just short Thursday night, but they figure that won’t happen too often when they play like they did.

In a high-energy matchup that featured a riveting goaltending showdown between the Rangers’ Igor Shesterkin and the Islanders’ Ilya Sorokin, who are buddies and compatriots, the latter prevailed as the Isles secured a 2-1 win at Madison Square Garden.

The two teams were neck-and-neck on the scoreboard for a majority of the game, with the Islanders holding a one-goal lead for just under 13 minutes in the middle frame and then the final 2:44 in the third. Still, the Rangers seemingly held an edge throughout the night and were rightfully pleased with their effort.

“Felt like a Rangers-Islanders game,” said defenseman Jacob Trouba, who earned the secondary assist on Chris Kreider’s game-tying power-play goal in the second period. “It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other. It was a fun, fast, physical game — it was an exciting hockey game.”

The Islanders may be a long shot for the playoffs, but the visitors kept up with a high-flying Rangers squad and rode a game-changing performance by Sorokin, who finished with 28 saves. With just under three minutes left in regulation of a 1-1 game, Islanders forward Kyle Palmieri extended his point streak to six games with a timely tap-in to steal the win.

Ryan Lindgren caught an elbow from Isles forward Oliver Wahlstrom just before the Isles’ goal, and the Rangers defenseman was visibly frustrated with not getting the call. Head coach Gerard Gallant thought the Rangers were a little rattled by it, which led to Palmieri’s goal on a bouncing puck at the other end.

“To be honest with you, I had more of a problem on our two penalties that were called earlier in the game,” Gallant said. “The [Ryan] Strome roughing and then the [Barclay] Goodrow hooking. I think the referees did a good job, low penalties are good, but I just didn’t like the two calls against us. I really didn’t.

“I didn’t see that there were penalties in those ones, but they got a tough job to do, it’s a battle. At the end, to be honest with you, I thought it was a high stick. But it wasn’t, somebody said it was a shoulder or an elbow. I didn’t see it yet.”

As the final seconds of Goodrow’s hooking penalty carried over into the second period, the Islanders capitalized. Captain Anders Lee picked the top corner on Shesterkin for the 1-0 lead.

The Rangers earned all three of their power plays in the middle frame, and Kreider — who else? — tied the game on the second one. The goal was Kreider’s 40th of the season and 21st on the power play, making him just the fourth skater in Rangers history to post such numbers in a season — joining Jaromir Jagr, Mike Gartner and Vic Hadfield. He is also the second NHL player to reach the 40-goal mark this season.

“I’ll take the effort we had tonight,” Trouba said. “You don’t like the result, but I’ll take that over some of the wins we’ve had this year with the game we played. There’s a lot we can take from this game.”