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Lundqvist, Rangers end three-game losing streak

Oct 17, 2006 - 2:43 AM NEW YORK (Ticker) -- Henrik Lundqvist showed Martin Brodeur there was more than one outstanding goaltender in the building.

Lundqvist stopped 34 shots, weathered seven power-play attempts and the New York Rangers scored twice late in the second period en route to a 4-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils.

Lundqvist made 15 of his 34 saves in the third period as the Rangers snapped a three-game losing streak. They allowed 17 goals during the skid.

"They want to play good hockey and it's no secret," Rangers coach Tom Renney said. "We've had some tough games and it's not because they wanted to have tough games. Sometimes it does take a real good kick in the backside to wake you up. We got bad in Buffalo, as much as we may have been kidding ourselves before that."

New York lost 7-4 at Buffalo on Saturday, after suffering 4-2 and 6-5 defeats to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh earlier in the week.

"We really felt like we've been beating ourselves," Brendan Shanahan said. "I think we beat ourselves in the Philly game and the Pittsburgh game and then it just hit rock bottom in Buffalo."

Shanahan scored on the power play with 1:31 remaining in the second period to snap a 1-1 tie. It was his league-leading seventh goal of the season and fourth with the man advantage. The 19-year veteran has scored in every game he has played for New York.

"It's a very good group and a group that's willing to put the work in," Shanahan added. "As long as we work hard, intelligently and together. ... Obviously we wanted to win but we were less concerned about the score and more concerned about playing the right way."

Jason Ward followed 57 seconds later on a shorthanded tally. His shot came on a two-on-one, when he scored off a miss by Matt Cullen.

"It's just one of those situations," Ward said. "I wanted to be aggressive on the D and it just poked loose. Cullen was going wide, he's got lots of speed and it was just one of those things that I was totally off the play. The puck was just laying there and I took my chances."

Brodeur, a two-time Vezina Trophy winner who has helped the Devils to three Stanley Cup titles, was attempting to become the third goaltender in league history to win 450 games. He finished with 25 saves.

"The way that we were playing, we had a good second period," Brodeur said. "We were able to get to them a lot and get some quality chances but we made some mistakes."

Martin Straka added a goal and an assist and defenseman Aaron Ward scored unassisted in the first period for the Rangers, who were outshot, 36-29.

"Goals are going to come, it's a matter of patience," Aaron Ward said. "When you start to fall apart in the second period and it's still 0-0, the sign of a bad team is you start pressing and making those small mistakes which lead to those turnovers in a tight game like this.

"We exercised maturity and we're a veteran team. We were patient and that's a good sign as opposed to Saturday night."

Scott Gomez and Travis Zajac each tallied for the Devils, who had their two-game winning streak snapped.

"Sometimes we try to shake things up a little and hope to get things going," Devils coach Claude Julien said. "Overall we didn't play a bad game. In the second period when they scored the goal on the power play, that was the area that ended up costing us."