Red Wings Clear Way Past Rangers

When an opposing team fails to capitalize on a scoring chance or can’t clear the puck, the Detroit Red Wings take full advantage.

The New York Rangers were the latest team to find this out.

Sergei Fedorov, Kris Draper and Brent Gilchrist scored, and the Red Wings extended their home unbeaten streak to 13 games with a 3-1 victory over the Rangers on Wednesday night.

“When you make mistakes against Detroit, they usually end up in the back of your net,” said New York’s Theo Fleury, who had a heated exchange with Chris Chelios in the final period.

Eric Lindros returned after sitting out a game with a sprained right knee and centered Fleury and Mike York on the F-L-Y line, which had been broken up in the last month because of injury and ineffectiveness.

Petr Nedved’s power-play goal at 7:09 of the third period ended Dominik Hasek’s hopes for his 60th career shutout, but the struggling Rangers, who have lost 10 of their last 15, still couldn’t knock off the NHL’s top team.

Hasek made 26 saves and New York’s Mike Richter made 32.

Draper scored on a goal-mouth scramble late in the first period after Fedorov prevented the Rangers from clearing the puck. When New York failed to get the puck out of its zone again late in the second, Gilchrist capitalized with his first goal since Oct. 25, 2000.

Fleury and Chelios went at each other with shoves and words midway through the final period. Fleury was so angered by what Chelios shouted at him that Fleury is going to call the NHL to complain on Thursday.

“It was very, very personal,” said Fleury, who declined to give specifics. “There’s no place in the game for that at all.”

Washington 2, Minnesota 1--Ulf Dahlen had a goal and an assist at Washington, and the Capitals ended a four-game losing streak.

Olaf Kolzig made 29 saves for the Capitals, who killed five power plays, including one over the final 1:26.

Ottawa 6, Columbus 4--Jody Hull scored for Ottawa on a tip-in past Ron Tugnutt while falling down with 2:40 remaining at Columbus, Ohio.

Ottawa’s Patrick Lalime stopped 24 shots and passed Tugnutt for the most victories with the Senators. Lalime is 73-48-14; Tugnutt was 72-51-25 in his four seasons at Ottawa.

Tampa Bay 3, Florida 2--Kevin Weekes, making a rare start in place of All-Star Nikolai Khabibulin, made 37 saves at Sunrise, Fla., and won for the third time in 10 starts with the Lightning.

Nashville 2, Dallas 1--Denis Arkhipov scored and had an assist, and Mike Dunham stopped 33 shots at Nashville, helping the Predators split the season series with Dallas.

Chicago 5, Phoenix 2--Tony Amonte scored twice at Phoenix and the Blackhawks ended a two-game skid.

Despite having the second worst penalty-killing unit in the league, the Blackhawks held the Coyotes scoreless on four power-play attempts.

San Jose 2, Calgary 0--Evgeni Nabokov stopped the 27 shots he faced at San Jose to post his sixth shutout this season. Matt Bradley and Adam Graves each had a goal and an assist.