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Rangers rally for victory over Blues

Mar 3, 2007 - 10:52 PM NEW YORK (Ticker) -- Stephen Valiquette and Marcel Hossa came through in the clutch to lead the New York Rangers to a crucial victory.

Valiquette made two huge saves in the shootout and Hossa scored the decisive tally as the Rangers posted a 3-2 comeback victory over the St. Louis Blues.

New York (31-27-7) entered the game 11th in the Eastern Conference standings, five points out of the final playoff spot. At 3-5-2 in their last 10 home contests, the Rangers were in desperate need of a win at Madison Square Garden, and Valiquette and Hossa made it happen.

Valiquette made 25 saves and stopped Brad Boyes in the third round of the shootout to keep the bonus format even at 2-2. Hossa responded in the fourth round with a tally and Valiquette clinched the win with a glove save on Glen Metropolit.

Lee Stempniak and Doug Weight scored on the Blues' first two shots of the shootout before Valiquette stiffened to post his first NHL victory since March 27, 2004.

"I think on the first two shots, I was trying to be too patient. I was calming myself down too much," Valiquette said. "After I let in two, I was like, forget it, because in the shootouts, my history is I get really pumped up. After that, I got so mad and I really had to make myself a little bit angry after the first two."

New York had to rally just to get to the shootout as St. Louis built a 2-0 lead on first-period goals by Boyes and former Ranger Radek Dvorak.

"It's huge. We were down 2-0 and we came back strong," Hossa said. "The goalie was unbelievable. We believed in each other and we just came strong (in the) last period. Every game is like a playoff game, like a Game Seven. We just got to keep going and believing we can do it."

Defenseman Karel Rachunek cut the deficit to 2-1 with 8:46 left in the third period with a power-play goal and Sean Avery scored with just under three minutes remaining to tie it.

Rachunek scored with a shot from the left faceoff circle before setting up Avery, who was trailing the play, in the slot for the tying goal.

"It's big. It would have been a real tough loss, especially with what's been happening in the last couple of games," Avery said. "That's what we needed. It got us energized again and we got to realize every day we're in the hunt and we can't let our guard down. So that was big. It was good."

The Rangers honored former player and long-time television analyst John Davidson in a pregame ceremony. Davidson left his job in the broadcast booth to become president of the Blues before this season.