Rangers Rally to Beat Devils

NEW YORK (AP) _ Two goals down, two periods gone, and Martin Brodeur in the way was hardly the recipe for a New York Rangers victory. <br/><br/>With a fiery mid-game coaching tirade and a fluke goal by

Wednesday, November 15th 2006, 6:27 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ Two goals down, two periods gone, and Martin Brodeur in the way was hardly the recipe for a New York Rangers victory.

With a fiery mid-game coaching tirade and a fluke goal by Jaromir Jagr, the Rangers quickly turned the improbable into stunning reality.

New York coach Tom Renney had seen enough after his team fell behind by two goals to the New Jersey Devils through 40 minutes. He let his players have it between the second and third periods and they responded with a 3-2 victory Tuesday night.

Jagr scored twice and Brendan Shanahan capped the rally that lasted 1:30 with his 14th goal, giving New York its third victory of the season after trailing through two periods.

``We got a bit of a wake-up call after the second period,'' Shanahan said. ``We went out and certainly charged the net more and it paid off.''

That's putting it lightly.

Brodeur came in with a mark of 33-14-15 against the Rangers, a 2.13 goals-against average and six shutouts in 62 career regular-season games. He has beaten New York more than any team and more than any active goalie has defeated another club.

New Jersey carried a 2-0 lead into the third period and trailed just 3:35 later. The spurt shocked the Devils and rocked Madison Square Garden.

``We had our chances, but just a span of 3 minutes or so cost us the game,'' Brodeur said.

In other NHL games, it was Detroit 3, Vancouver 2; Calgary 3, St. Louis 0; and Phoenix 4, Minnesota 3.

The loss snapped the Devils' season-best, four-game winning streak. Instead of a four-point lead over the Rangers in the Atlantic Division if New Jersey had won, the teams are tied for first place.

Renney ripped the Rangers, who hadn't won at home since a 4-2 victory over the Devils on Oct. 16. New York mustered only three shots in the first period and 11 in the second.

``This year, that was maybe as passionate as I've been,'' Renney said.

Jagr's goals came 26 seconds apart. The one that tied it was a shanked shot that popped high in the air, floated and fluttered toward Brodeur and dropped over his outstretched arms.

``To beat Marty, you have to be lucky,'' said Jagr, who has seven goals this season and 598 in his career.

Brodeur hung his head and then had to listen to derisive chants of ``Mar-ty, Mar-ty.''

``I saw it the whole way. It's a tough feeling. I thought for sure it was going over the net,'' Brodeur said. ``We outplayed them.

``We had our chances, but just a span of 3 minutes or so cost us the game.''

It was a speech that lasted only a few minutes that got the Rangers rolling in the right direction.

``There comes a time as a coach where you've got to conjure up the proper emotion to go out there and tackle the task at hand,'' Renney said. ``We weren't being proactive with respect to putting them on their heels. We proposed that they may want to do that.

``I think it's a turning point in our season.''

Jamie Langenbrunner and Brian Gionta each scored, with assists from defenseman Brian Rafalski, but the Devils went only 1-for-6 on the power play _ including three penalties against Jagr. New Jersey had won six of seven.

``We had plenty of goals to win the game. It wasn't that, it was defense that let us down,'' said Gionta, who scored for the first time in nine games. ``They had that first one, and then it sort of snowballs and you've just got to stop the momentum. ``We just didn't do that.''

Red Wings 3, Canucks 2

Johan Franzen scored a short-handed goal with 6:19 left and the visiting Red Wings tied a team record with their ninth straight win.

Detroit goalie Dominik Hasek, who blanked Edmonton and Nashville in his last two starts, extended his shutout streak to a career-best 181 minutes, 17 seconds before Henrik Sedin scored on a power play 7:49 into the second period.

Henrik Zetterberg and Valtteri Filppula also scored for the Red Wings, who haven't lost since Oct. 21 in Edmonton.

Flames 3, Blues 0

Miikka Kiprusoff made 24 saves and host Calgary won its fifth straight game.

Kiprusoff has won all five games and has played superbly, looking like the goalie that won the Vezina Trophy last season as the NHL's top netminder. Kiprusoff has a 1.00 goals-against average and a .965 save percentage during the streak.

It was Kiprusoff's third shutout of the season and 20th of his career.

Coyotes 4, Wild 3

Yanic Perreault and Oleg Saprykin each scored two goals to lead host Phoenix.

Ladislav Nagy and Georges Laraque each had two assists for the Coyotes, who have the fewest points in the Western Conference.

Pavol Demitra, Wes Walz and Mark Parrish each had a goal and an assist for the Northwest Division-leading Wild, who lost for the fourth time in five games.

Phoenix goalie Curtis Joseph stopped Demitra's wide-open shot in the final seconds to preserve the victory.