For the New York Rangers, it was a joyous moment as they skated off the ice with a 3-0 victory and a playoff berth in their back pockets, the reward for 80 games of hard work. For the New York Islanders, it was the final difficult and painful moment on home ice in what had been a season full of difficult moments as they watched their archrivals celebrate on their rink while their building was filled with mostly Rangers fans cheering the road team.

Jaromir Jagr scored two power play goals for the Rangers in the first period while Henrik Lundqvist made 25 saves to earn the shutout. The loss guaranteed the Islanders that they would finish in the bottom five in the league standings and that they will have a chance at the first overall pick in the draft during next week's lottery.

That was of little consolation to Ted Nolan who had to deal with yet another difficult defeat. "That's three-to-five years down the road," Nolan said about when the impact of a top draft choice is usually felt. "You never play a season to try and get into the lottery or finish at the bottom. But teams that finish at the bottom are sometimes rewarded. Look at Pittsburgh a couple of years ago (when they got the rights to Crosby and Malkin).

As for today's game, Nolan was pleased with the Islanders' work ethic but realized his team is in a difficult situation. "You look at the experience of one team and you can only say so much about effort," Nolan said. "The effort was there. The guys competed and tried hard, but it comes down to experience, and you're going to have some breakdowns against an experienced club."

Lundqvist and the Rangers were more pleased with the outcome. “It feels great to be in the playoffs again,” Lundqvist said. “You never know what can happen with three games to go and you need one more point. It’s good to get it over with right away. We played great."

Jagr got the Rangers on the board first at the 13:51 mark with Bill Guerin in the penalty box for slashing. The Rangers' captain let a shot go from the top of the left circle. Martin Straka screened Isles' goalie Wade Dubielewicz on the play.
The second Jagr goal came came 1:59 later just eight seconds after Freddy Meyer was sent to the penalty box for holding. The Islanders' Matt Keith tried to clear the puck but gave it up to Michal Rozsival at the left point. Rozsival sent a quick cross ice pass to Brandon Dubinsky who found Jagr for a one-timer at the right circle.

The Islanders best chance to score came early in the third period. Sean Bergenheim came in on a 2-on-1 break. His shot beat Lundqvist but clanked off the post and back into play. When asked if it would have been a different game if Bergenheim's shot went in, Isles' captain Bill Guerin replied, "It could have been, but haven't we all been there?"

Straka put the icing on the cake a few minutes later with a hard slap shot from between the circles that went over Dubielewicz's shoulder and into the net. As the clock wound down, Rangers fans serenaded the Islanders with chants of "Season's over, season's over." Sean Avery got into a shoving match with Rob Davison with nine seconds left to play, but the outcome was long decided by then.

Perhaps the brightest part of the game for the Islanders was the play of rookie Kyle Okposo who performed well in his first Rangers-Islanders game. "I thought the intensity was pretty high out there. It was a little bit more than I've seen so far," Okposo said.

Despite the losses, Guerin was pleased with the character the Islanders have showed by not quitting despite being out of the playoff race. "We’ve got good people here,” Guerin said. “It’s not an easy time for us to play, but guys are finding reasons to show up and play hard every night. Different people have different motivations, but we’re working hard out there.”

The Islanders conclude their schedule Friday night at Madison Square Garden against the Rangers. With two games left on their schedule, the Rangers are now battling the Devils for fourth place overall in the Eastern Conference standings.

Notes

The Rangers were without Brendan Shanahan, who was held out as a precaution with a strained leg muscle. He is expected back in the lineup Friday night.

Defenseman John Hillen made his NHL debut for the Islanders just two days after being signed out of Colorado College. Hillen saw 15:39 of ice time, had one shot on goal, one hit and took one penalty. Ted Nolan saw potential in Hillen. "He handled himself well, but he definitely needs some seasoning. We're not going to judge a kid too heavily after being thrown into a game against the Rangers right from college hockey. He looks like he some good upside to him."