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Rangers visit NY rival Islanders seeking 7th straight win

Nov 15, 2011 - 3:48 PM (Sports Network) - The red-hot Rangers will take aim at a seventh consecutive victory when the visit the rival Islanders tonight at Nassau Coliseum in a battle of New York teams.

The Rangers won just three times in their first nine games of the season, but have since rattled off six straight victories. It's the longest winning streak for the Blueshirts since they claimed seven straight wins from Oct. 3-17, 2009.

The Islanders, meanwhile, have recorded just one win in the 10 games since defeating the Rangers at the Coliseum on Oct. 15. Jack Capuano's club has lost its last three outings and is 1-6-3 since that win over its New York rivals.

The Blueshirts have lost two in a row to the Isles, but won the previous four meetings between the clubs. The Rangers have also dropped two straight and three of their last four games at the Coliseum.

John Tortorella's Rangers picked up their most recent win on Friday, as they pounded the visiting Carolina Hurricanes, 5-1, at Madison Square Garden. It was the seventh home game in eight trips to the ice for the Rangers, who are kicking off a four-game road trip tonight. They are 4-2-2 as the visiting team this season

Dan Girardi and Brandon Dubinsky scored nine seconds apart midway through the third period to help spur the Rangers to victory over the Hurricanes. Ryan Callahan made it three goals in three minutes with his tally at the 13:47 mark. Henrik Lundqvist stopped 34 shots to improve his record to 6-3-3 on the season.

"It was good that other people chipped in. I thought the biggest factor in our game was - most of this year - we stay with it," Tortorella said. "We try to stay with our game. Everybody did that. We had some contributions from other people."

Marian Gaborik, who leads the Rangers in goals (9) and points (15), was held pointless on Friday for just the fifth time in 15 games this season. He has 15 goals and 27 points in 22 career games against the Islanders.

The Islanders visited Vancouver on Sunday and were dealt a 4-1 setback by the defending Western Conference champions. Aaron Rome had a goal and two assists to help the Canucks skate to the easy win at Rogers Arena.

Matt Moulson notched the lone goal for the Islanders and Evgeni Nabokov stopped 32 shots in the loss.

"We still need to get better in some areas," Islanders forward John Tavares said. "But we stuck with it and played hard."

The Islanders have yet to pick up a win in six road games (0-4-2), but they are 4-3-1 on home ice. Tonight marks the first of three straight at the Coliseum for the Isles, who will also host Montreal and Boston this week.