NHL ROUNDUP : Islanders Edge Rangers, 3-2

The battle of New York in recent seasons has usually been for civic pride between the normally high-flying Rangers and the usually struggling Islanders.

Friday night, the stakes were much higher--the final playoff spot in the Patrick Division.

After 60 minutes at Madison Square Garden, the battle was still undecided.

Finally, at 3:41 of overtime, Pierre Turgeon scored his 50th goal of the season to give the Islanders a 3-2 victory and a three-point lead over the Rangers with eight games left for each club.

Turgeon took a pass from behind the net off the stick of Brad Dalgarno and beat goaltender Mike Richter with a flip shot from slightly outside the crease.

The Rangers, who led the league with 105 points last season, are trying to avoid being the first team since the 1969-70 Montreal Canadiens to fail to make the playoffs a year after having the league’s best overall record. That year, the Rangers knocked the Canadiens out of the playoffs on the final day of the season.

The Rangers, who have lost six of their last seven home games, had been 14-3-3 in the last 20 meetings against the Islanders at Madison Square Garden, but 0-11-3 at the Nassau Coliseum.

Washington 4, Montreal 0--Goaltender Rick Tabaracci, playing only his second game in a Capital uniform, stopped 33 shots at Landover, Md., for his second career shutout.

Tabaracci, acquired in a trade with the Winnipeg Jets on March 22, won for only the sixth time in 21 games this season.

The Canadiens have been shut out in their last two road games.