UNIONDALE, NY – The difference in the standings was on display last night at the Nassau Coliseum, as the first place Rangers proved why they have the best record in the NHL and the last place Islanders showed why they have only four points on the year.

It was just a matter of discipline.

Playing smart, the Rangers were able to stay in their system and got better as the match went along, while the Islanders took too many bad penalties and seemed to get out of their game plan over the later parts of the game.

That’s why the 4-2 Blueshirt win is more than two points for the Rangers, but a snapshot of season so far on both benches.

“We hung in and we didn’t break,” said coach Tom Renney, who passed Roger Neilson for fourth place on the all-time Rangers win list with 142. “It’s a testimony to the ability to come back. We have to play a certain way to have some success and at the same time put pressure on the other team to make some defensive decisions.”

The pressure Renney was referring to resulted in 11 Islander penalties for eight Ranger power plays. That caused the Isles to play catch-up for the last 40 minutes of the game.

“If we don’t stay in our system and have one guy going off on his own page, it’s going to screw things up,” said Islander captain Bill Guerin. “From there, everybody feels they are just chasing and are out of position. We got the result of coming out of our game plan.”

The Islander structure was actually working in the first. After Chris Drury tipped in Nikolai Zherdev’s pass at 56 seconds to give the Rangers the early lead, the Islanders seemed to take control.

First, Brandon Dubinsky got benched for taking two bad penalties in the first 5:31. Renney decided to send a message to his young center and the rest of his team, for that matter, telling them that undisciplined play would not be tolerated.

“I wanted Dubi to understand there’s a way we have to play and the guy behind the bench is the boss,” Renney said. “He knows that. He’s a good kid. He’ll learn.”

The Rangers learned as the game went along. Playing better in the second, the Blueshirts were able to take the lead for good with a little less than four minutes left in the period. Ryan Callahan took Scott Gomez’s feed in front to the net to shoot it by Joey MacDonald, who had 25 saves on the night.

The tally was basically the Islanders nail in the coffin as the Blueshirts took hold of the game in the third and never let go. Not giving the Isles any chances, they Rangers outshot their Long Island brethren 14-5 for the period.

Scott Gomez added to the lead 6:52 with his third of the season, tipping in a Michal Rozsival shot from the point, which hit Bruno Gervais and Gomez tapped it in from the side.

Then after Doug Weight and Sean Bergenheim both took high sticking penalties, which resulted in a 5-on-3 for the Rangers, Drury tallied his second of the game and second of the season to make the lead insurmountable.

“I’ll take it,” Drury said. “These are exciting games to play. I just wanted to get off to a good start in the series [against the Isles].”

And it was just another day at the office for Henrik Lundqvist, who stopped 28 shots, although he let Mark Streit score with less than two minutes left in the match.

But that wasn’t enough as the Rangers played a very disciplined game on the Island.

“The guys realize they have to be on the same page,” Renney said. “The idea tonight was to play 60 minutes. They need to complete the deal in an intelligent way. I thought we did that.”

Notes: With tonight’s win, the Rangers tied the franchise record for best start through 12 games, improving to 9-2-1 on the season for 19 points … The Blueshirts also registered 19 points through 12 games in 1978-79 (8-1-3) and 1989-90 (8-1-3) … New York’s nine wins through 12 games also tied a team record set in 1983-84, when the team began the season with a 9-3-0 record.