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Drury, Rangers defeat Hurricanes for third straight win

Feb 29, 2008 - 4:58 AM By Joe Johnson PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Ticker) - Chris Drury and the New York Rangers continued their winning ways on Thursday.

Drury scored a key goal as the Rangers posted a 4-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes.

Rookie Brandon Dubinsky, Sean Avery and Brendan Shanahan also tallied for New York, which won its third straight game and is 6-0-2 in its last eight contests.

"I don't think anyone is paying attention (to the winning streak)," Drury said.

The victory also helped the Rangers (33-24-8, 74 points) maintain a tie for sixth place with the Boston Bruins (34-23-6, 74 points) in the Eastern Conference with 17 games left in the regular season.

"We played a good road game," Rangers coach Tom Renney said. "We certainly didn't want to give them any opportunity to get momentum, get a lead, get the crowd behind them, anything like that. We did our job that way."

Carolina, which saw its three-game winning streak come to an end, received two goals from Erik Cole.

Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette said he felt the game was lost in the first period.

"We did give away the first period," Laviolette said. "We had chances to get back but we weren't particularly sharp, especially trying to generate offense. They played a good defensive game."

Dubinsky struck early when he took a centering pass from captain Jaromir Jagr in the slot and beat goaltender Cam Ward with a backhand flip just inside the right post 3:50 into the contest for a 1-0 lead. It was the rookie's fourth tally in the last six games.

Avery, who also has been hot, scored on a low slap shot from the right wing that snuck under Ward's pads with just 44 seconds left in the first to make it 2-0. It was Avery's third goal in his last five games and 11th overall this season.

Newly acquired Tuomo Ruutu said the Rangers took advantage of Carolina's early mistakes.

"They got a couple of goals from the turnovers and a bunch more chances," Ruutu said. "We should have been a little smarter in the first period."

New York went up 3-0 early in the second period when Drury outbattled defenseman Frantisek Kaberle for a puck in the slot and banged in a rebound off an initial shot by blue-liner Marc Staal at 2:14 of the middle session.

After Cole scored twice, including his second tally at 4:54 of the third to cut Carolina's deficit to 3-2, Shanahan restored New York's two-goal lead with 12:48 remaining, earning the Rangers a split of their four-game series with the Hurricanes.

Shanahan said the Rangers have figured out how to win and it comes down to the team paying closer attention to the details.

"We're being smarter," Shanahan said. "It was a lack of focus we had in the middle of the season. We're doing those little things right, not taking penalties, a lot of that is good line changes and being good with your stick."

Henrik Lundqvist stopped 26 shots for New York to earn his 29th win of the season.

"We really don't have a choice right now," Lundqvist said of the Rangers' recent hot streak. "It's so tight in the standings right now. Focus is important for us. We're really playing our system right now.

"I think we're playing well as a team right now that's why we we're winning. We're scoring when we get the opportunities. It's very good for us."

Ward made 24 saves for Carolina, which was stymied in its bid for a season-high fourth straight win.

"For whatever reason, it seemed like the puck was bouncing and it just wasn't clicking," Ward said. "It wasn't going our way and because of that we got ourselves in a lot trouble."