John Tortorella Pulls the Right Strings in Rangers' 6-5 Win Against Islanders

A pair of changes by John Tortorella worked out perfectly for the New York Rangers' in their 6-5 victory over the New York Islanders in a thriller on Thursday at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

The decision by the Rangers head coach to move sparkplug Sean Avery to the line with star sniper Marian Gaborik and playmaker Erik Christensen paid off immediately. Gaborik had three goals, Avery three assists and Christensen scored a goal and added an assist.

"I thought Sean did a great job of initiating the forecheck and keeping the puck," said Tortorella in his postgame press conference. "Obviously, it was a pretty important line for us tonight."

After the Islanders rallied in the third period on goals by Michael Grabner and Blake Comeau to tie the game at 5-5, Gaborik scored just 25 seconds later at 14:35 on assists by Avery and Christensen.

"We stayed with it, and Marian made some great plays," said Avery. "I know where he's going to be. I've watched him enough. He always gets to the right spots."

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Tortorella was also successful with an in-game hunch.

After the Islanders battled back from trailing 2-0 to take the lead on a goal by Rob Schremp with seven and a half minutes left in the second period, Tortorella pulled goalie Martin Biron in favor of usual starter Henrik Lundqvist. By the end of the period, the Rangers had a 4-3 lead on goals by Brandon Prust and Gaborik.

By the middle of the third period, with the Islanders trailing 5-3 on another goal by Gaborik, the Islanders had managed only five shots on goal on Lundqvist. The hook was a combination of Biron's shaky play and Tortorella's decision to wake up his team -- "a little bit of both," said Tortorella -- and it worked.

Biron, who played last season for the Islanders, entered the game with a career record of 20-4-1 with a 1.93 against the Islanders.

In a first period dominated physically and territorially by the Rangers, the Islanders were fortunate to escape down just 2-1. Gaborik's line dominated a shift to give the Rangers the first goal of the game. Christensen roofed a snap shot over goalie Rick DiPietro's shoulder at 8:11 of the first period for his fourth goal of the year.

The Rangers took advantage of a breakdown in the Islanders' zone when Ryan Callahan converted Brandon Dubinsky's centering pass at 17:07 of the first period. However, the Islanders went into their locker room for the first intermission with something to build on as Zenon Konopka scored his first goal of the season a minute later by creating traffic and defelecting ther puck past Biron.

The home team tied the game mid-way through the second period when Matt Moulson got behind Dubinsky, took a pass from John Tavares and deposited the puck into the open net when Biron missed with a poke check. Then the Islanders took the lead when Rob Schremp's slap shot eluded Biron.

That's when Tortorella replaced Biron with Lundqvist, and the Rangers righted their ship. Well, at least until the hard-charging Islanders tied the game with six minutes left in regulation.

The Islanders have something to build on -- at least offensively -- heading into the rematch Friday at Madison Square Garden. The Rangers said they were taught a lesson by the rebuilding and injury-depleted Islanders.

"We have to come Friday with the mindset to make things tighter," said Avery. "We've got to play a better game."

Said Tortorella: "There were some good things tonight, and there were some god-awful things."