The Islanders–Rangers rivalry, also known as the Battle of New York, is a local sports rivalry between the New York Islanders and New York Rangers of the National Hockey League. Both teams play in New York, with the Rangers in the New York City borough of Manhattan, and the Islanders in the Long Island county of Nassau near its border with Queens. They are two of the three teams that play in the New York metropolitan area, the other being the New Jersey Devils who play in Newark, New Jersey. Like the Knicks–Nets rivalry of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the old Dodgers–Giants rivalry of Major League Baseball (MLB), the two teams are in the same division and thus play several matches together each season. In contrast, the New York Yankees and New York Mets are in different leagues while the New York Jets and New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL) are in different conferences, and as such those teams meet rarely, either during interconference or championship games. History 1970s The rivalry was established in late 1971, when the National Hockey League awarded a second franchise in the New York metropolitan area. With the impending start of the World Hockey Association in the fall of 1972, the upstart league had plans to place a team, the New York Raiders, in the then-new Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Nassau County. The NHL did not want competition in the nation's largest metro area, so despite having expanded two years before, the NHL awarded franchises to Atlanta (which ultimately failed and moved to Calgary) and Long Island to preempt the WHA. The fledgling New York Islanders had an extra burden to pay in the form of a $4 million territorial fee to the nearby New York Rangers. In the 1974–75 season, the Islanders made their first postseason appearance while the Rangers qualified for the ninth straight season. The two teams met in the first round. The Islanders won Game 1 in Madison Square Garden, but the Rangers tied the series at 1 by defeating the Islanders 8–3 on the road. The Islanders won the series 2–1 as they beat the Rangers 4–3 11 seconds into overtime on J. P. Parise's goal at the Garden. The teams squared off again in the 1978–79 season, but this time in the Semifinals. The Rangers took Game 1 on the road, but the