Rangers Rally Late to Beat the Flyers 3-2 at the Garden; Islanders Fall 5-3 to Carolina at UBS
New York's two home hockey teams split Thursday night: the Rangers scored twice in the final 6:08 to stun Philadelphia 3-2 at Madison Square Garden, while the Islanders twice came back against the champion Hurricanes before William Carrier's goal with 5:08 left sent them to a 5-3 loss in Elmont.
The Rangers saved their best hockey for the last six minutes. Trailing 2-1 deep into the third period at Madison Square Garden, New York tied the game on Pavel Dorofeyev's power-play goal with 6:08 remaining — Denver Barkey was in the penalty box for slashing — and won it 89 seconds later when Tye Kartye scored with 4:39 to go, beating Joseph Woll for a 3-2 final over the Philadelphia Flyers. The Rangers had struck first, 4:39 into the game, on a double deflection that Gabe Perreault tipped in off J.T. Miller's redirection, before Simon Benoit and Noel Acciari scored in the second period to put Philadelphia ahead. Rookie Dylan Garand stopped 23 of 25 shots for New York, while Woll denied 25 of 28 for the Flyers. It was the first of four meetings between the teams this season, with the Rangers at 9-7-1.
In Elmont, the Islanders kept answering the defending Stanley Cup champions and still came up empty. Carolina scored on two of its first three shots in the opening 3:20 — Logan Stankoven at 57 seconds and Jesperi Kotkaniemi 2:23 later — but Mitchell Chaffee's first goal as an Islander and Brayden Schenn's wraparound tied it 2-2 early in the second, according to the Islanders' own recap on NHL.com. Andrei Svechnikov put Carolina back in front a minute after Schenn's goal, and Victor Eklund tied it again, 3-3, late in the second period off a feed from Schenn.
The stalemate held until the final minutes, when William Carrier found a loose puck in front of Semyon Varlamov and scored with 5:08 remaining; Jalen Chatfield's empty-netter closed the 5-3 final. Varlamov made a season-high 34 saves — his highest total since April 6, 2024 — and the Islanders outhit Carolina 26-16 and won 40 of 61 faceoffs, but they went 0-for-4 on the power play and managed just one 5-on-5 scoring chance in the third period. "We just give ourselves a chance every single night," Schenn said in the team's recap. The Islanders host the New Jersey Devils on Saturday at 7 p.m. for Military Appreciation Night.
