NEW YORK – It took four months for Tom Renney to figure out his team. Four months of line changes, reworking and hope the talented Rangers would finally mesh.

After his last switch up in February, it finally worked.

Since losing to the Ducks back on Feb. 2, the Rangers are 7-0-3 going into last night’s game, with the line combinations clicking.

Especially at the top where Sean Avery, Brandon Dubinsky and Jaromir Jagr give the Blueshirts a tremendous effort every night.

And especially Avery, who has eight goals since being lined up with No. 68.

“I would like to say it’s because I am just a great player – so fast and see the ice well,” joked Avery but then got serious, “It’s probably they are more worried about [Jagr] than me or [Dubinsky]. It’s great for us, it opens up ice for us and me and Dubi can play off each other. That’s what makes Jags such a great player. He’s fine with that.

“We are starting to read off each other and respecting each other when they have the puck. It feels good chemistry-wise.”

With the top line working – led by Avery’s two goals - the Rangers kept rolling with an impressive 4-1 win over the Islanders last night at the Nassau coliseum.

Actually Avery had more chances than that, with Ted Nolan’s curious decision in goal with Wade Dubielewicz starting over Rick DiPietro, even though the Islander’s franchise goalie is 8-4 lifetime against the Rangers.

In the first, it seemed like Avery made it 2-0 after Brendan Shanahan scored at 1:29, but he hit the post with an open net. Yet, no worries, because Avery was able to take one a few minutes later all alone in front of the net to get his score.

“I just went to the bench and I was a little frustrated, I hit the post,” said Avery who added an empty netter later in the game. “When you get a goal in the first period, you feel pretty good at time goes on.”

Although the Islanders came back in the second and outshot the Rangers 14-5 in the second and cut the Blueshirt lead in half with a Sean Bergenheim goal, the Blueshirts held the lead and killed off a number of Islander power plays with a strong effort from Chris Drury, who is getting hot at the right time.

“He's just so good in so many areas of the game,” said Henrik Lundqvist, who rebounded from two shaky games with a 26 save effort.

But it was the third period where the Rangers came through. Shutting down the Islander attack, while padding their lead with a goal by Scott Gomez, off a Marc Staal redirection past Dubielewicz [24 saves], the Isles had no chance no matter who was in goal.

“To play with a one-goal lead in the third period, that's kind of how you want to draw it up,” Shanahan said. “We didn't sneak out of here with a win tonight.”

“It just translates into playoff hockey,” added Avery. “We certainly got confidence where we can hold the lead in the third period.”

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