Rangers beat Panthers, 4-1

SUNRISE, Fla. - For two periods in a 4-1 victory over the Panthers last night, the Rangers bore no resemblance to a team in the hunt for a final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with a week left in the regular season.

But with the Rangers trailing 1-0 after 40 minutes against a more energetic and creative Florida team, defenseman Marc Staal picked up the puck from Henrik Lundqvist and went coast-to-coast, waking up the Blueshirts with his third goal in three games.

After the long solo rush, Staal's wrister from the left side zipped past former Devils netminder Scott Clemmensen at the 18-second mark. It opened the gates for the Rangers, who earned the victory they needed.

"L.A. to New York," veteran Anders Eriksson quipped of the rush.

"All game we were just kind of hanging around, and we knew we needed the points more than they did," Staal said of his eighth goal. "I told Hank to leave it and I found some room, then just put it on net. I think I'm more conscious of trying to hit the net when I get opportunities, that's the biggest thing."

In winning their third straight and sweeping this two-game Florida swing, the Rangers extended their last-ditch run to 5-0-1. The two points, which gave them 82, lifted them into ninth place ahead of Atlanta and tied in points with the eighth-place Flyers, who have more wins. The Rangers play the Flyers the last two games of the season Friday and Sunday.

It was the first time all season the Rangers won after being behind after the second intermission: They had been 0-24-2.

Brandon Prust, who flipped in a high backhander at 9:36 of the third for his second game-winner in two nights, called Staal's effort "the turning point of the game . . . We all jumped up on the bench. It gave us new life."

Chris Drury gave the Rangers an insurance goal from the blue paint 1:30 later and Marian Gaborik's 41st of the season, an empty-netter with a minute to play, gave the Rangers four consecutive goals.

The Rangers avoided what could have been a tough step back against the struggling Panthers, as the Bruins and Canadiens, two teams ahead of them in the postseason chase, picked up points.

"I don't think our team is tired," coach John Tortorella said before the game.

Funny, they looked it. The Panthers, playing with three defensemen who have spent most of the season in Rochester of the AHL, took a 1-0 lead in the second when veteran defenseman Keith Ballard scored his eighth of the season, a wrister from the left point that clanged off the crossbar. It came just seconds after a penalty to the Rangers' Michal Rozsival had expired at 6:38.

The Rangers never generated much in the first period, garnering just five shots. Lundqvist, playing his 13th straight and 21st in the last 22, kept the game scoreless in the first, making nice saves on Stephen Weiss and Dmitry Kulikov.

With just over five minutes left in the period, Lundqvist slid to his left to deny a wide-open Nathan Horton on a backdoor pass.

"We weren't happy with our first two periods," Prust said. "We were sitting on the bench in the third and started looking at each other and said, 'Let's get going . . . ' "