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Drury, Valiquette help Rangers ground Flyers

Feb 1, 2008 - 4:21 AM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- The struggling New York Rangers once again got better when they visited the City of Brotherly Love.

Chris Drury had a power-play goal and an assist and Stephen Valiquette made 20 saves for his first career shutout as the Rangers blanked the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-0, on Thursday in an Atlantic Division contest.

Nigel Dawes, Petr Prucha and Brendan Shanahan also scored for New York, which has won six straight and 10 of its last 11 at the Wachovia Center dating to March 27, 2004.

"We're not afraid to play the Flyers, but we're afraid to lose here," Rangers coach Tom Renney said. "They seem to bring out the best in us, and it's a hostile environment in here. It's usually an emotional game, and I think that our guys like that."

Sean Avery had a much simpler explanation for New York's success in Philadelphia.

"We're all big fans of (Flyers senior vice president) Bob Clarke, I guess," he said.

The road victory was the first for the Rangers since defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs, 6-1, on December 29 - a span of seven games.

Valiquette was not required to do much, stopping nine shots in the first period, two in the second and nine in the third en route to the shutout.

"The win was so important for us," Valiquette said. "Without it, we're really in trouble. Every game is the biggest game of our season. With a 4-0 win, we're more excited about the win than me getting a shutout."

"We couldn't mount much of an attack," Flyers coach John Stevens said. "I don't think that their goaltender had to make more than two saves all night. We allowed them to come and dictate the hockey game. They were the better team tonight."

Dawes provided all the offense Valiquette needed when he opened the scoring 8:18 into the first period.

Drury blocked defenseman Jim Vandermeer's attempt to clear the puck and quickly fed Dawes, who deked Antero Niittymaki before wristing the puck over the prone goaltender for his seventh goal of the season.

Prucha doubled the advantage with 2:04 remaining in the session, corralling the rebound of defenseman Daniel Girardi's shot and wristing the puck into the net for his seventh tally.

Drury gave the Rangers a three-goal lead just 23 seconds into the middle period.

Skating into the offensive zone, Drury patiently waited for a screen to develop before blasting the puck past Niittymaki for his 13th goal of the campaign.

"It was near the end of the power play," Drury said. "I just shot it to get it on the net. It went through a screen and it found a hole to go through."

Shanahan scored just 78 seconds later, executing a brilliant give-and-go with Avery before beating Niittymaki.

That spelled the end of the evening for the Finnish netminder, who made eight saves before being pulled in his second consecutive contest. Niittymaki allowed five goals in a 7-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils on January 22.

"You just have to keep going and forget about what happened," Niittymaki said. "That's the only thing that you can do. There are a lot of games left and there is nothing that you can do about this one."

Martin Biron made 15 saves in relief for the Flyers, who had won six of seven.