Jaromir Jagr had a goal and assist in the third period to tie the Rangers' records for goals and points in a season, and goalie Henrik Lundqvist was perfect in relief in New York's 5-4 shootout victory over Buffalo on Monday night.
Jagr set up Petr Sykora's goal 3:19 into the third period that cut the Rangers' deficit to 4-3, then tied it with 9:44 remaining in regulation.
Jagr's goal gave him 52 goals, equaling Adam Graves' club mark set in the 1993-1994 season, and 109 points -- tying Jean Ratelle's record that stood for 34 years.
PHOTO: AP
It was the third straight time the Rangers went to a shootout and the first time they won in the four-day span. New York was 5-1 in the tiebreaker before dropping three straight -- including two in a row in weekend road losses to Florida and Tampa Bay.
Lundqvist relieved Kevin Weekes at the start of the third period when the Rangers trailed 4-2. The Swedish rookie stopped five shots in that frame, three more in overtime, and then turned aside Daniel Briere, Maxim Afinogenov, and Derek Roy in the shootout to send Buffalo to its season-high, sixth straight loss.
Sykora scored on New York's first attempt, giving him four shootout goals in six tries. That was enough to push the Rangers back into first place alone in the Atlantic Division, two points in front of Philadelphia.
Martin Straka and Sandis Ozolinsh also scored for New York in regulation. Briere, Chris Drury, J.P. Dumont and Jason Pominville scored for Buffalo.
Red Wings 4, Blues 1
At St. Louis, Steve Yzerman scored his 690th goal to tie Mario Lemieux for eighth place on the career list and help NHL-leading Detroit clinch a playoff spot.
The 40-year-old Yzerman scored midway through the second period off a scrum that started with Niklas Kronwall's shot from the slot. Patrick Lalime made the save on Kronwall, but the rebound ended up on Yzerman's stick just to the left of the goal, and the Detroit captain buried it for his 12th goal of the season.
Next up for Yzerman is Mark Messier, seventh with 694 goals.
Manny Legace made 20 saves for the Red Wings. His bid for a second straight shutout was ruined when the Petr Cajanek scored of a faceoff with 57.3 seconds left.
Kirk Maltby, Johan Franzen and Tomas Holmstrom also scored for the NHL-leading Red Wings, 10-1-2 this month and 89-31-17 in March since 1994-1995.
Hurricanes 2, Lightning 1
At Raleigh, North Carolina, Mark Recchi scored his first goal for Carolina, Martin Gerber had 23 saves and the Hurricanes clinched a playoff spot.
Cory Stillman also scored to help Carolina move ahead of Nashville for the best home record in the NHL. The Hurricanes have 19-point lead over the second-place Lightning in the Southeast Division with 12 games left.
Recchi, acquired in a trade with Pittsburgh three weeks ago, broke a 1-1 tie on a 5-on-3 power play midway through the second period. He has 25 goals overall.
Martin St. Louis scored his 25th goal for Tampa Bay.
Panthers 4, Bruins 3, SO
At Boston, Olli Jokinen scored in a shootout and Florida goalie Roberto Luongo stopped all three Boston attempts in the tiebreaker.
Seemingly out of the Eastern Conference playoff picture a few weeks ago, the Panthers have won six straight and are 9-1-1 in their last 11 to move six points behind seventh-place New Jersey and Montreal. The top eight will make the playoffs.
Jozef Stumpel, Jay Bouwmeester and Gary Roberts scored for Florida in regulation, and Patrice Bergeron had two goals and Brad Boyes also scored for Boston.
Roberts tipped in Jokinen's shot from the point for a tiebreaking power-play goal with 8:25 left in the third period, but Bergeron scored his second of the game with 43 seconds to play to send it to overtime.
Canucks 7, Kings 4
At Vancouver, British Columbia, Alexandre Burrows scored two of his three goals during a 3-minute span late in the second period for the Canucks.
Anson Carter scored his career-high 29th goal and Daniel Sedin, Brendan Morrison and Richard Park also scored to help the Canucks win for the third time in four games and move into a seventh-place tie with Edmonton in the Western Conference.
Mattias Ohlund had three assists, and Todd Bertuzzi and Markus Naslund added two each, including the 700th point of Naslund's career. Mark Parrish had two goals, and Tom Kostopoulos and Michael Cammalleri also scored for the Kings, 1-1 since John Torchetti took over as interim coach after Andy Murray was fired.
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