Chris Drury scored his first two goals of the season and Henrik Lundqvist made 28 saves to lead the New York Rangers to a 4-2 win over the host New York Islanders Monday night at the Nassau Coliseum. Ryan Callahan and Scott Gomez also scored for the Rangers while Kyle Okposo and Mark Streit tallied for the Islanders.

Isles' coach Scott Gordon was pleased with his team's play for the first half of the game, but then saw them abandon their system.

"I thought the first half of the game, I think I liked our chances better than theirs,” Gordon said. "The big change for us was the turnovers and not positioning ourselves good enough in the latter part of the second period and third period led to some bad checks and some penalties that we started taking because we were on our heels."

The Islanders were without starting goalie, Rick DiPietro, who was officially listed as being out with a "lower body injury unrelated to his previous injuries" according to a statement released by the team. Joey MacDonald got the start and Yann Danis was recalled from Bridgeport to serve as his backup. MacDonald performed well again despite taking the loss.

Drury got the Islanders on the board just 1:15 into the contest. He attempted a pass from behind the goal line which deflected off an Islander skate and past MacDonald to make it 1-0 Rangers. In fact, three of the Rangers' four goals were deflected off Islander players before finding the back of the net.

"It's just bounces, I guess," MacDonald said after the game. "They're not going our way right now, but eventually, they will turn."

The Islanders kept thing close in the first period until finally breaking through with just 7.3 seconds left when Kyle Okposo netted his first goal of the year. Richard Park made a great play, winning a battle for the puck in the corner before passing it to Okposo in front. Okposo took a wrist shot that went in over the shoulder of Lundqvist to send the two teams into the first intermission tied at 1-1.

Callahan put the Rangers up 2-1 with just 3:44 left in the second period. Paul Mara's shot from the point hit Trent Hunter's skate in front of the net when Callahan pounced on the rebound and put it past a sprawling MacDonald to make it 2-1 Rangers.

The third period was dominated by the visitors who outshot the Isles 14-5. Scott Gomez extended the Ranger lead after a shot by Michal Rozsival deflected off Bruno Gervais' skate and came to him just to the right of the net. The deflection left MacDonald out of position and Gomez beat him easily to the short side.

Drury scored on a five-on-three Rangers' power play to put the game out of reach at 4-1 at the 12:34 mark of the third. A late shorthanded goal by Mark Streit ended the scoring with 1:56 left in the game.

"We came out of our game plan and got the result of coming out of our game plan," Isles' captain, Bill Guerin said. "We have to focus on our system again. It's not that we can't do it, it's a discipline. We're missing discipline in our system and we're missing discipline by going to the penalty box all the time. If we correct those two things, we'll be much better."

The Islanders next game will be Thursday at division rival, Philadelphia. The Rangers will host the Atlanta Thrashers Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.

NOTES

In addition to calling up goalie Yann Danis, the Isles brought up defenseman Joel Skinner on an emergency basis from Bridgeport. The 25-year-old Skinner played 6:45 in his NHL debut. Freddy Meyer joined the list of injured Isles' defensemen and was listed as day-to-day with an abdominal injury suffered in Saturday night's loss to Carolina. Meanwhile, defenseman Brendan Witt will be out approximately 3-4 weeks with a "lower body injury."

Prior to the game, the Islanders unveiled their new third jerseys which they will wear at 15 home games during the season. The alternative sweaters are based on the team's 1975 style and will make its debut this Saturday when the Isles host Montreal. Islander legends Mike Bossy, Bobby Nystrom and Clark Gillies were on hand to introduce the new uniforms along with current players Josh Bailey and Mike Sillinger.

Mark Streit has now scored a goal in three straight games and has seven points in eight games as an Islander.