Semyon Varlamov blanks Rangers as Isles continue good play

Anyone watching Friday night’s game between the Rangers and Islanders would have found it hard to believe that the Blueshirts entered the game 24 points ahead of their rivals in the standings. The Rangers generated little or no intensity and ultimately were thoroughly beaten by the Islanders, 3-0, before a relatively quiet Madison Square Garden crowd.

“We came out and we kind of dirtied up our pants,’’ Rangers forward Artemi Panarin said through an interpreter.

Or, as coach Gerard Gallant put it, “We were horse [expletive].’’

The loss ended the Rangers’ winning streak at four and kept them from gaining ground on Pittsburgh in the race for second in the Metropolitan Division.

Semyon Varlamov made 27 mostly routine saves to earn his second shutout of the season and his fourth straight against the Rangers at the Garden. Mathew Barzal had a goal and an assist for the Islanders (31-27-9), who won for the 10th time in their last 14 games (10-3-1). The Rangers are 44-20-5.

Both teams were playing their third game in four nights. The Islanders were in the second night of a back-to-back; the Rangers were off Thursday after flying home from Detroit.

With Ilya Sorokin still not ready to play, Islanders coach Barry Trotz opted to go with Varlamov, who played Thursday in the Islanders’ 5-2 win over Columbus. Varlamov looked energetic and sharp, but the Rangers didn’t really test him, generating only seven shots on goal in the first period.

“It’s just not acceptable,’’ Rangers center Mika Zibanejad said. “It obviously wasn’t good enough. I mean, I’m not going to take anything away from them, but .  .  . I felt like last game [against the Islanders, a 2-1 loss at the Garden on St. Patrick’s Day], we played a pretty good game. It was a tight game, a good hockey game against them last time. We didn’t come up to our standards and our level, and that’s on us.’’

Trotz was asked why he thought the Islanders — who climbed to within 13 points of a playoff spot with 15 games to go in the regular season — can beat the Rangers.

“Rivalry,’’ he said. “Plus we don’t like them. They don’t like us.”

The Islanders, who had 18 total shots, managed only five in the first period but took a 1-0 lead on Casey Cizikas’ goal at 2:40.

Igor Shesterkin, who looked like a shoo-in for the Vezina Trophy and a legitimate contender for the Hart Trophy just a couple of weeks ago, hasn’t been quite as unbelievably good in his last few starts.

He led the league in save percentage at .936 and was second in goals-against average with 2.11 going into Friday’s game, but he’d been pulled twice in his last seven starts before Friday.

The Islanders made it 2-0 at 4:48 of the second period when Barzal set up Matt Martin for his third goal of the season. Barzal closed out the scoring when he lifted a backhander over Shesterkin at 2:57 of the third period.

The Rangers’ power play, second in the NHL at a 27.1% success rate entering the game, went 0-for-3.

In the second period, Gallant tried to shake things up by changing his lines, moving Filip Chytil to the second line with Artemi Panarin and Andrew Copp. He also pulled Shesterkin with 7:40 to play for an extra skater, but nothing worked.

“It looked like we were skating in quicksand all night,’’ Gallant said. “[When] we move the puck up the ice, we’re a pretty good team. [When] we start dancing around with it, spinning around with it and turning it over, that’s what you get.’’

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.