Rangers’ Fleury Enters Substance Abuse Program

The New York Rangers are about to discover how much adversity they can stand.

Just over a week after the Rangers lost top goalie Mike Richter to a season-ending knee injury, New York learned before Wednesday night’s 4-2 victory over the Florida Panthers that they will probably finish the season without leading scorer Theo Fleury.

Fleury, the team’s leader in goals with 30 and points with 74, voluntarily entered the substance abuse and behavioral health program run jointly by the NHL and the players’ association. Fleury, 32, is out indefinitely.

“The mood before the game was a little dull,” said Kirk McLean who made 38 saves. “The reasons were obvious. During the game it was great. Obviously guys are a lot happier with the win.”

The 10th-place Rangers rallied behind their adversity and moved eight points behind Carolina and Boston in the race for the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.

Rangers coach Ron Low was proud of the way his team responded.

“We talked about adversity and overcoming it,” Low said. “I thought Kirk was really good tonight. He stood tall and made a lot of great saves for us in the third period. All the guys stepped their game up.”

McLean faced 21 shots in the third as the Panthers tried to muster a comeback. He played solid throughout, twice stopped Mike Sillinger on second-period breakaways and denying Pavel Bure with a sliding stop with less than two minutes remaining.

Brian Leetch opened the New York scoring with his 200th career goal. Sandy McCarthy, Petr Nedved and Radek Dvorak also scored as the Rangers ended a three-game losing streak.

Greg Adams scored twice for Florida, which ended a trip in which it lost all five games.

Montreal 4, Pittsburgh 2--Jim Campbell and Saku Koivu each scored twice to ruin Mario Lemieux’s Montreal homecoming as the Canadiens beat the Penguins.

Lemieux, making his only regular-season appearance in his native Montreal, set up Krzystof Oliwa’s first goal of the season 16:22 into the second to draw Pittsburgh within 2-1.

Jaromir Jagr scored his 33rd goal with 3:10 left as the Penguins again closed within one before Koivu added his second of the game 1:03 later to send Montreal to its second win in as many nights following a six-game losing streak.

Toronto 2, San Jose 1--Curtis Joseph made 38 saves and Sergei Berezin scored his 20th goal of the season as the Maple Leafs won at Toronto.

Joseph, who stopped 22 shots in the third period alone, has allowed only five goals in his last four starts.

Columbus 5, Phoenix 2--Marc Denis made 25 saves, and five Blue Jacket players scored in a victory at Columbus, Ohio.

Steve Heinze, David Vyborny, Serge Aubin, Deron Quint and Mattias Timander scored for Columbus, which who its second in a row after going winless in seven games.

Edmonton 5, St. Louis 3--Mike Grier scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period at Edmonton, Canada as the Oilers earned their fourth consecutive victory.

Daniel Cleary, Doug Weight, Tom Poti and Shawn Horcoff also scored for the Oilers, who have a four-game winning streak for the third time this season.

With 71 points, Edmonton is only one behind Phoenix for seventh place in the Western Conference.

Vancouver 5, Dallas 4--Daniel Sedin had a goal and an assist and five Canuck players scored in a victory at Vancouver, Canada.

Dallas lost center Joe Nieuwendyk 5:17 into the second period because of a strained groin after he stepped awkwardly on teammate Grant Marshall’s stick.

Nieuwendyk, third among Dallas scorers, was helped off the ice limping noticeably. He will be re-evaluated today.

Around the League

St. Louis Blues defenseman Darren Rumble was suspended two games without pay by the NHL for kneeing San Jose Shark center Mark Smith in Monday’s game. . . . Owen Nolan rejoins the San Jose Sharks tonight after an 11-game NHL suspension for hitting Grant Marshall of Dallas in the head with a forearm. . . . Colorado Avalanche defenseman Eric Messier will be sidelined for four to six weeks because of lower leg fracture. He was injured in a Feb. 19 game against Pittsburgh.