Mika Zibanejad and Taylor Raddysh scored for the Rangers (22-26-6), who are 2-8-1 in their past 11 games. Spencer Martin made 31 saves.
The Rangers held forward Artemi Panarin, their leading scorer, out of the lineup for roster management reasons. He is not expected to play in the team’s remaining three games before the Olympic break.
“Panarin is a terrific player and a great teammate, and he’s good friends with a lot of the guys that are in that dressing room,” Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said. “That has an impact on guys. I thought our guys did a great job, just as far as controlling what they can and bringing the right intentions out there. But obviously, he’s one of the best Rangers of his generation, and he’s not an easy guy to replace, not in the lineup, but everybody understands it. And we’re going to control what we can and we’re going to see what we can take from this one. We’re going to try to put our best game on the ice tomorrow.”
Palat gave the Islanders a 1-0 lead on the power play at 14:59 of the first period. Holmstrom found him in the bumper spot for a one-time finish glove side on Martin.
Holmstrom made it 2-0 at 16:10. Pageau won an offensive-zone draw back to Tony DeAngelo at the right point before he found Holmstrom cutting to the back slot for a tap-in.
Zibanejad cut the Rangers’ deficit to 2-1 at 18:04 of the first period while on the power play. J.T. Miller, stationed in the right face-off circle, found Zibanejad deep in the left face-off circle for a one-time finish.
Emil Heineman hit the crossbar on a 5-on-3 power play at 10:27 of the second period, but Mathew Barzal gave the Islanders a 3-1 lead at 13:12 on the ensuing 5-on-4 power play. Holmstrom fed Barzal inside the left face-off circle for a one-time finish.
“They got that power-play goal, and I think we lost a little bit [of momentum],” Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider said. “I thought we needed a bit better effort. In the third, we were trying, but they were doing a good job, so I thought [we just needed] a little bit more.”