Rangers Finally Stop the Senators

The New York Rangers accomplished two goals Sunday night. They beat a team with a winning record and finally defeated the Ottawa Senators.

Sylvain Lefebvre, Mark Messier and Jan Hlavac each scored as the Rangers jumped to a three-goal lead and then held on for a 3-2 victory at New York.

The Rangers improved to 2-9 against teams with winning records by knocking off one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference. The Rangers also snapped the Senators’ eight-game unbeaten streak (7-0-1) against them.

“We said, ‘Enough is enough,’ ” Ranger goalie Mike Richter said. “We’ve got a good team here.

“The key is the belief in this locker room that we’re a different team than we were at the beginning of the year. We will be an even better team in a month or two from now.”

Jason York and Daniel Alfredsson scored for Ottawa in the second period after the Rangers had gone ahead, 3-0, on a power-play goal 5:47 into that period.

Phoenix 2, Philadelphia 1--Landon Wilson broke a third-period tie and former Flyer goalie Sean Burke made 35 saves as the Coyotes won at Philadelphia.

Burke nearly shut out the Flyers two days after another former Flyer goaltender, Garth Snow, blanked Philadelphia.

The Flyers struggled on offense despite the return of John LeClair, who had back surgery five weeks ago. Philadelphia had no penalties for the first time in 21 years but couldn’t capitalize on four power plays.

Nasvhille 7, Carolina 4--Randy Robitaille scored two goals during Nashville’s four-goal first period as the Predators beat the Hurricanes at Raleigh, N.C.

The Hurricanes were 5-1-0-1 in their previous seven games, but after trailing 1-0, Nashville scored four times in a span of 7:51 to snap its three-game losing streak and set a franchise mark for goals in a game in the team’s third season.

Nashville right wing Scott Hartnell suffered a concussion and is expected to be sidelined a week.

Minnesota 4, Vancouver 2--Antti Laaksonen recorded the first hat trick in Wild history as his expansion team extended its unbeaten streak to four games with a victory over the Canucks at St. Paul, Minn.

Laaksonen scored the game’s first two goals as Minnesota built a 3-0 lead. He scored his third goal midway through the third period.

It was their third consecutive loss for the Canucks after starting a five-game trip with victories at Columbus and St. Louis.