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Drury lifts Rangers over Sharks

Feb 17, 2008 - 10:07 PM By Larry Fleisher PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

NEW YORK (Ticker) -- The New York Rangers completed a successful weekend by doing two things they rarely had done recently - beating a Western Conference opponent and scoring a power-play goal at home.

Chris Drury had a power-play goal and an assist as the Rangers ended a nine-game losing streak against the Western Conference with a 3-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Sunday afternoon.

Drury, who registered his team-leading 19th goal, continued his recent hot stretch, scoring his seventh goal in nine games.

Ryan Callahan scored twice for the Rangers, including an empty-netter with two seconds remaining.

"It was real important," Callahan said. "Every point matters now from here until the end of the season. They had the lead there, but I think we showed a lot of character coming back and then once we got the lead, we kept it."

New York won for the third time in four games and finished the season 1-7-2 against the West. The Rangers were 1-4-0 at home against the Pacific Division and 0-3-2 on the road against the Northwest.

After having five days off, the Rangers came out flying with four goals in the first 12:25 of a 5-1 win over Buffalo on Saturday.

Against San Jose, the Rangers allowed the first goal, then held off an opponent that was buzzing around the net for portions of the third period before sealing the win with Callahan's empty-netter.

"I'm glad we won both," New York left wing Brendan Shanahan said. "We played a really good third period, especially because we kept our poise. We got the go-ahead goal. There were a couple of shifts where they were in our zone but our net was really well protected."

Drury feels the Rangers have improve defensively in what has been an up and down season.

"I think we feel pretty good in tight games and we're getting to lock it down," Drury said. "We did it in (New) Jersey (a 3-1 win on February 1) and tonight was another example."

Henrik Lundqvist turned in his second straight solid effort since signing a six-year contract worth $41.5 million on Thursday. He stopped 29 shots and blanked the Sharks after Jonathan Cheechoo gave San Jose a 1-0 lead 3:31 into the contest.

"It was a good weekend for us," Lundqvist said. "We got the wins and worked hard. We came (out) with a lot of energy. It feels really good to get the wins because of the way we played."

After Callahan tied the contest with 8:26 left in the first period, Drury snapped the tie early midway in the second. He took a cross-ice pass into the slot and ripped a slap shot past goaltender Evgeni Nabokov 5:44 into the period.

It was New York's first power-play goal at home in 10 games. Before Drury tallied, the Rangers had not scored a power-play goal at home in their previous 42 chances.

Nabokov recorded 30 saves for the Sharks, who suffered a rare road loss.

Even with the defeat, the Sharks own the league's best road mark at 17-6-3. But that record will be tested over the next two weeks as Sunday's contest was the opener of a season-high eight-game road trip.

"When all four lines are effective, I think that makes us (a good road team)," Nabokov said. "Today, we were trying to rely on one line. So we need all four lines rolling and scoring goals."

San Jose dropped its third straight game. Unlike their previous two contests, when the Sharks had 15 power plays, they had a season-low one against the Rangers.

"We have to find a way to score some goals," San Jose coach Ron Wilson said. "Unfortunately, tonight we only ended up with one power play. You get some momentum when you have power plays and tonight for some reason, we didn't get any."

The Sharks opened the scoring as Joe Thornton registered his 500th career assist. He reached the milestone when Cheechoo put his backhanded pass past Lundqvist for his 10th goal in 13 games.

"To be honest, I thought it was going to be a good night for us," Thornton said. "We were all around the net. Henrik played well and we just didn't bear down at the right times. We had a lot of chances. We just couldn't finish tonight."