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Islanders bounce back for huge win over Rangers

New York Rangers v New York Islanders

NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 16: (L-R) Josh Bailey #12, John Tavares #91, Anders Lee #27 and Thomas Hickey #14 of the New York Islanders celebrate Lee’s second period goal against the New York Rangers at the Barclays Center on February 16, 2017 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

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After getting blown out by the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night and missing a huge opportunity in the Eastern Conference playoff race, the New York Islanders entered Thursday’s game against the Rangers with a playoff mentality.

They ended up bouncing back nicely from that ugly loss the other night to pick up a huge 4-2 win over the Rangers.

The Islanders received a pair of goals from Andrew Ladd in the win to move to within a single point of the Maple Leafs for the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference Wild Card race and still have a game in hand.

For the Islanders to even be at this point is a pretty stunning turnaround given where this team was just a few weeks ago with a 15-16-8 record on Jan. 11.

A week later they fired coach Jack Capuano.

Since the 11th the Islanders have gone on an 11-4-2 run and made up some significant ground in the playoff race.

Still, the road ahead is going to be quite a challenge for the Islanders, and we should emphasis “road.”

Of the 26 games remaining on their schedule the Islanders will play 18 of them on the road, including a nine-game road trip that starts on Feb. 21.

The Islanders are only 7-12-4 away from the Barclays Center this season.

The loss for the Rangers snapped what had been a six-game winning streak.