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Dubinsky, Lundqvist get Rangers past Panthers

Mar 23, 2011 - 3:33 AM New York, NY (Sports Network) - Brandon Dubinsky scored the lone goal of the contest in the third period, and Henrik Lundqvist stopped all 22 shots to record his 10th shutout of the season, as the New York Rangers held on for a 1-0 win over the Florida Panthers at Madison Square Garden.

Ryan Callahan and Artem Anisimov picked up the assists on Dubinsky's 22nd goal of the season at 7:49. The Rangers, who have won five straight for the first time since a seven-game winning streak from October 3-17, 2009, now have 84 points and remain entrenched in seventh place in the Eastern Conference.

Lundqvist, making his 18th consecutive start, turned aside five shots in the first period, nine in the second and eight in the third to register his 34th career shutout.

"It is going to come down to low-scoring games so you have to be sharp," Lundqvist said. "We didn't get frustrated. It is easy to get frustrated in a game like this. The key is being mentally sharp."

Tomas Vokoun was sensational, making 32 saves for Florida, which has dropped nine of its last 12 games.

"We gotta find a way to score goals," said Panthers head coach Peter DeBoer. "There aren't a lot of natural goal-scorers in [our locker room] but we gotta find a way to create two chances for every one that a goal-scorer would get. We just didn't do that."

Scoreless after 40 minutes, New York got on the board at 7:49 of the final period. After the Rangers put on some heavy pressure around the Florida net, Callahan picked up the puck off a goal-mouth scramble and fed to Dubinsky, who re-directed it home from the low slot.

A tight defensive game by the hosts limited the Panthers chances until Florida pulled the goaltender in favor of the extra attacker in the last minute.

Mike Santorelli's shot from a bad angle hit off several players in the crease and trickled off the goal post with 22 seconds left and the Rangers cleared the zone a short time later off a defensive zone faceoff to prevail.

The Rangers had the jump off the opening faceoff, but were unable to find the back of the net despite being awarded an early power play and dominating the territorial play. New York outshot Florida 9-5 in scoreless first period.

Much like the first 20 minutes, the Rangers had the better of the opportunities throughout the second, but were unable to solve Vokoun, who made several spectacular saves in the stanza.

Game Notes

Rangers defenseman Marc Staal missed his second straight game with an undisclosed injury...New York improved to 18-16-3 on home ice this season, while Florida was playing the opener of a five-game road trip and fell to 14-19-2 as the visitor.