Rangers Proved Igor Shesterkin Injury Didn't Kill Their Momentum With Iconic OT Road Win vs Islanders

When you think of the great rivalries in sports, many oft-repeated matchups come to mind. Yankees/Red Sox, Lakers/Celtics, and Real Madrid/Barcelona are just a few that spark an extra fire in their respective fan bases. The resulting spectacle it creates is why we love sports: two teams battling as hard as they can to earn their fan base bragging rights.

Yet time and time again, there seems to be one long-standing rivalry that seems to be lost among the other iconic matchups, and that is the fiery hatred between the NHL's New York Islanders and the New York Rangers. I had the privilege of seeing Tuesday's game in person at the Barn, and after Mika Zibanejad's goal 28 seconds in to overtime ended a thrilling contest with playoff position at stake, I found myself gasping for breath.

Even after losing their leader in goal, the Rangers did it again.

This was a statement win for the Rangers, who a day before this game found out that star goaltender Igor Shesterkin was involved in a car crash, along with Pavel Buchnevich, and would miss a good portion of the rest of the season. Combine that with having to face the Islanders, who are in the middle of a playoff push as well, and it seemed to be a recipe for disaster and stalled momentum.

The first eight minutes of the game was the loudest I have ever heard Nassau Colisuem. Every single Islanders player was giving maximum effort and they peppered Rangers goaltender Alexandar Georgiev with a relentless barrage of shots.

And yet the Rangers entered the first period intermission ahead 1-0, thanks to a blistering one-timer from Islanders off-season target Artemi Panarin.

The visitors shocked the home fans into further silence after the Rangers again found the net in the second period, following a long stretch of offensive pressure from the Islanders. Nothing seemed to work from an offensive standpoint, and the tension inside Nassau Coliseum was palpable.

That is, until a goal from newly-acquired JG Pageau caused anxious Islanders fans to finally erupt with relief. It was game on, and the teams went in to the break with the Rangers again holding the slight advantage.

The third period can only be described as pure chaos, beginning with Brendan Smith's tip-in to restore the Rangers' two-goal advantage, causing audible groans mixed in with the Rangers fans who couldn't believe the performance of their team amid the circumstances.

It was an ugly start to the period. People were getting angry, fights started in the stands, and there seemed to be no way past Georgiev. Then a fight happened on the ice, after a controversial hit from Jacob Trouba on young Michael Dal Colle.

The goal-scorer PG Pageau fought Trouba, fighting majors were handed out, and Pageau was given an additional two minutes for instigating, along with a 10-minute misconduct. That meant a power-play for the Rangers at a pivotal moment in the game.

Not only did the Islanders kill off the penalty, but Jordan Eberle came flying out of the penalty box after serving the minor in place of Pageau, and scored a glorious backhand goal to cut the deficit to one again.

The Rangers were under immense pressure with just under six minutes left in the game, and the chants of "Let's go Islanders!" grew louder with each passing minute. With just over 90 seconds left, Islanders head coach Barry Trotz pulled his goalie and ratcheted up the intensity. With just 20 seconds left, the resistance finally broke, and Brock Nelson found the back of the net to draw the score level at three.

The Coliseum was deafening. Beer was flying everywhere ,and the Islanders players on the ice were beside themselves with joy. Rangers fans for the first time all game were silent, and as regulation time expired, they feared two points gained would turn to a point lost at a critical moment in the season.

This overtime period would define the current group of Rangers. Would they crumble under the pressure? Would they rise above the adversity and save themselves from a loss against their biggest rivals? Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad made sure that answer would be an emphatic no.

After a terrible blue-line turnover from Anthony Beauvillier, Artemi Panarin stole the puck and was off on a breakaway. Nick Leddy did an excellent job of recovery, and as all three Islanders converged on Panarin, the Russian passed off the puck in the hopes that someone would be open.

That someone was Mika Zibanejad. The Rangers' alternate captain put all he could into a slap shot, and the puck whizzed by Islanders goaltender Semyon Varlomov on his blocker side to give the Rangers an improbable win.

After receiving difficult news about two of their best players, you could forgive the Rangers if they came out flat and got steamrolled in one of the toughest buildings to play in. Yet behind a 42-save performance from Alexandar Georgiev, and the entire roster showing heart from the first face-off until the game-winning goal, the Rangers kept themselves in the conversation to make the playoffs in the difficult Eastern Conference.

This ain't over yet. Rivalry's something, isn't it?