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Jagr scores twice as Rangers double up Hurricanes

Dec 27, 2007 - 4:34 AM By Larry Fleisher PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

NEW YORK (Ticker) - Jaromir Jagr's longest goalless drought in nearly a decade is over - and so is the losing streak for the New York Rangers.

Jagr scored twice as the Rangers rallied for a 4-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.

Before recording his first two-goal game, Jagr had not scored in his previous 10 contests dating back to a 5-2 win in Ottawa on December 1. Since Jagr last found the net, the Rangers had won just two of those games (2-6-2).

"I didn't pay attention to that," Jagr said. "I know it was a long time. It's not easy. It's not easy for the confidence. Even when you have your chances and you don't score for a long time, sometimes you do something you wouldn't do when you are hot, when you are on a streak."

Jagr took a season-high nine shots, recorded his first two-goal game since March 31 and also stretched his points streak to five games.

"It's significant because of all the pressure he puts on himself to play well," Rangers coach Tom Renney said. "We look at the contributions that Jagr makes, as we do with all of our players in other ways beyond scoring. Certainly that is his forte. He did the types of things you need to do in order to score. He has been trying."

Mired in his longest skid since 1998, Jagr put the Rangers on the board 2:28 into the second and finished off an impressive third period by converting a feed from Scott Gomez.

"I was just in the right place at the time," Jagr said. "I was hoping it was going to get to me."

"We know it's going to come, especially with Jags," Gomez added. "He's hit posts. He's played great. He's shooting the puck now, which is (big). He's dominating and I think it was going to come. But I think the key is he's shooting it."

Jagr's tally came after the Rangers rebounded from a sub-par second period by getting power-play goals from Chris Drury and defenseman Dan Girardi in the first 7:06 of the third.

Those goals came after Carolina rallied with its special teams. The Hurricanes tied it on a shorthanded goal by Scott Walker and went ahead on Eric Staal's power-play tally late in the second.

Besides blowing the lead, the Rangers also lost a player to a game misconduct when Colton Orr knocked out former teammate Matt Cullen.

Cullen has a broken nose and Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette also thinks that he has a mild concussion. His injury comes less than a week after Justin Williams was lost for the season with a knee injury.

"By no means was that the reason why we lost," Carolina defenseman Mike Commodore said. "It's something we're going to have to adjust to and find a solution (for)."

The Hurricanes were given a five-minute power play but only had one shot and following Staal's goal, defenseman Tim Gleason was whistled for an interference penalty that Laviolette thought was questionable.

"To be honest, I didn't really even see the penalty," Laviolette said. "I saw two guys battling for position, for space. They both did the same thing to try to get space. That's the way I saw it."

Besides scoring two power-play goals, the Rangers also got 20 saves from Henrik Lundqvist, who also made several sharp saves during a 6-on-3 in the final moments of the game.

That was created after Carolina pulled goaltender Cam Ward for an extra attacker and the Rangers were called for two penalties.

Ward, who recorded a shutout here on December 3, allowed Drury and Girardi to score on rebounds before Jagr finished off the game.