It was the first word out of David Quinn’s mouth after the game, and the Rangers coach hardly needed to say more about his team’s effort.

“Ballsy,” Quinn said after a power-play goal from Chris Kreider with 24.6 seconds left in regulation gave his team a second straight win over the Islanders, this one 3-2 on Thursday night at a raucous Coliseum. “Just a real gutsy effort by our guys.”

This was quite a bit different than the 6-2 shellacking the Rangers (23-19-4) put on the Islanders (28-14-4) on Monday night at the Garden. That was an offensive whirlwind led by Artemi Panarin, and this was a physical and mental grind that gave the Blueshirts their fourth win in the past five games since coming back from western Canada.

It also felt like a rivalry game, played to the soundtrack of alternating chants from the split crowd of 13,917. And it turned when old buddy Derick Brassard got called for cross-check when he upended Jesper Fast with 54 seconds left in regulation, setting up Kreider’s game winner on a rebound.

“There was a ton of energy in the building,” said Kreider, one of only four Rangers who also were on the roster the most recent time they played in the Coliseum, on March 10, 2015. “It was a lot of fun. Really tight match for the whole 60 [minutes]. Felt like a playoff game.”

What didn’t quite feel like a playoff game was the inconsistent officiating crew, who missed a knee-on-knee from Johnny Boychuk on Kreider just moments before the goal, but somehow saw an embellishment from Panarin on a hook from Casey Cizikas 12:29 into the third period. But the Rangers kept their heads down, kept playing smart, and never tried to force too much — a telltale sign of maturation for the youngest team in the league.

“When you come in here against a team that’s had the success they’ve had, they test your mettle, they test your physical toughness, they test your mental toughness,” Quinn said. “To come in here and get two points, certainly it’s a great sign for growth.”

It wasn’t looking great as the Islanders tied it, 2-2, when Anthony Beauvillier snuck one under goalie Alexandar Georgiev at 12:40 of the third. But Georgiev continued his dominance over the Islanders, making 12 of his 38 saves in the third period to give him a fourth win over the Islanders in five career starts.

“There were definitely some things we could have done better, and there were times when Georgie really saved our bacon,” Kreider said.

The Islanders obviously had revenge on their mind in the first period, when they peppered Georgiev with 22 shots to the six the Rangers managed on Semyon Varlamov. But the game went to intermission 1-0, Josh Bailey’s close-range blast with 51 seconds left in the period standing as the only goal.

“I thought we were a little bit curious — I don’t know if intimidated was the word — to see how this game was going to start,” Quinn said. “I think our guys were kind of wondering what was going to happen in the first period, and we lost our pace of play.”

But the Rangers came back with gusto in the second, as Mika Zibanejad got a power-play goal at 12:46, coming after a review when it first seemed as if defenseman Ryan Pulock had miraculously kept the puck out with his hand. And they took a 2-1 lead when Tony DeAngelo popped out of the penalty box and ripped a wrist shot over Varlamov’s shoulder at 4:16 of the third.

But the Islanders are in a playoff position for a reason, and the Rangers remain six points out for a reason. The Blueshirts have a lot of ground to make up if they want to consider themselves legitimate contenders for the postseason, but this was certainly another step in the right direction.

“Where we’re at in the season and what we want to accomplish, we need to show up in every game with the same type of passion and urgency that we showed tonight,” Quinn said. “But obviously when it’s the Islanders and the Rangers and you’re in Nassau Coliseum, it adds a little flavor to it.”