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Rangers down Wild with balanced attack

Nov 21, 2010 - 4:29 AM St. Paul, MN (Sports Network) - Brandon Dubinsky tallied a breakaway goal early in the third period and Martin Biron made 26 stops as the New York Rangers downed Minnesota, 5-2, at Xcel Energy Center.

Artem Anisimov, Michael Del Zotto, Ruslan Fedotenko and Alex Frolov also tallied for the Rangers, who stemmed a two-game slide and have won four of their last six.

"We're playing really well on the road. There's been a few hiccups here and there but overall we've grown comfortable with the system," Biron admitted. "It suits us well when we keep it down in their zone. We're solid between the hashmarks and quick on the puck. That was the key again tonight."

Matt Cullen and Martin Havlat scored for the Wild, who saw their three-game win streak halted. Niklas Backstrom was dented for all five goals on 30 shots.

Dubinsky raced in alone and beat Backstrom to the short side at 4:53 of the third period for a four-goal New York advantage.

Cullen finally put Minnesota on the board with a short-handed tally with 7:12 left in regulation, but Fedotenko restored the Rangers' four-goal edge 80 seconds later.

Havlat jammed home a John Madden dish with 4:49 to play, and the Wild pulled Backstrom for an extra attacker while on a power play inside of two minutes remaining. The move failed to pay off as the home team didn't cut further into their deficit.

"Obviously we dug ourselves too big a hole and they converted too many mistakes in the second," Cullen said of the deciding 20 minutes. "We don't commit turnovers and they don't get the momentum swing. Tonight that was the story."

New York tallied three times in the second period to seize control of the contest.

Anisimov opened the scoring at 8:50, before Del Zotto's power-play blast made it 2-0 at 14:24 then Frolov converted a Dan Girardi rebound with one minute remaining.

Game Notes

Rangers forward Marian Gaborik made his second trip back to Minnesota to play against his former club. He posted an assist in 16-plus minutes of action...New York recorded its first road victory against the Wild since February 19, 2003...Girardi notched two assists for the Rangers.