Rangers power-play themselves to a 6-1 win over the Leafs

With a four way tie with the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th place teams, the Rangers being 8th, this was an important game to give a slight edge in the standings to the Rangers. With that in store, the Rangers came out and shut up the Leafs crowd early on. The Rangers got 2 in the 1st period, and lead 2-0 after one. Another 3 goals were scored in the 2nd period, when the Rangers were on 3 straight 5-on-3 power plays. The Rangers scored a total of 5 power-play goals tonight, and made the Leafs look silly. 2 of them were scored by Petr Prucha, one by Straka, one by Shanahan, and one by Jagr. The last time that the Blueshirts scored 5 PP goals, was back in 1996 vs. the Capitals.

Steve Valiquette got the nod in net tonight, giving Henrik some rest for Tomorrow evening's game against the hot Montreal Canadiens. They beat Tampa and Florida 5-2 and 5-1 respectively. Valiquette play very well, allowing 1 goal on 28 shots. His counterpart, Andrew Raycroft was chased allowing 4 goals before the midway point through the 2nd period. The Rangers fed off the 4th line goal scored in the 1st period by Blair Betts. After that the ice seemed tilted in the Rangers favor, as they dominated the burnt biscuit for almost all of the first half of the game. Jaromir Jagr had a goal and 3 assists to bring his point streak up to 6 (3 G 8A) in a row. Scotty Gomez has a new career high with an 11 game point streak.

"It's the first time in about 10 games we have something going on the power play, our unit anyway," Jagr said. "We have to wait and see. The power play won the game for us."

Tomorrow holds no easy task, as the Habs visit MSG. They are currently 4th in the Eastern Conference, 2 points ahead of the Rangers. If the Rangers win in regulation, they will move up to 4th place after being in 8th place before tonight's game. Tight race isn't it?