Devils Eliminate Rangers from Playoff Contention

The New York Rangers’ season of promise ended with another guarantee and another spring without a trip to the playoffs.

The Rangers were beaten, 2-1, in New York on Friday night by the defensively superior New Jersey Devils, who eliminated them but were happier about clinching the Atlantic Division in the process.

“Winning our division, that’s what we had at stake,” said Joe Nieuwendyk, who assisted on the winning goal. “We played a solid team game.”

Jeff Friesen broke a 1-1 tie with 5:06 left in the second period when he took a pass from Nieuwendyk and fired the puck past Mike Dunham.

New York General Manager and Coach Glen Sather, along with team owner James Dolan, guaranteed that the Rangers would make the playoffs this season after a six-year absence.

The Rangers’ loss allowed the rival New York Islanders to clinch the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.

The Islanders had two chances to eliminate the Rangers, but they tied them on Tuesday and lost to Detroit on Thursday. So the Devils -- 6-0-3-1 in their last 10 games -- did the job for the Islanders and clinched their fifth Atlantic title in seven years.

Philadelphia 4, Tampa Bay 1 -- Simon Gagne scored twice and the Flyers set a franchise record with their 23rd road win.

Despite the victory, the Flyers settled for second in the Atlantic Division as New Jersey clinched the division title by beating the Rangers.

Southeast Division champion Tampa Bay had its franchise-record 13-game unbeaten streak (7-0-6) end.

Florida 4, Carolina 1 -- Roberto Luongo celebrated his 24th birthday at Sunrise, Fla., by stopping 34 shots to help the Panthers end a seven-game winless streak.

The victory also ended the Panthers’ franchise-record 13-game home winless streak.

Detroit 5, Columbus 5 -- Pavel Datsyuk scored with 12 seconds left in regulation as the Red Wings rallied three times from two-goal deficits at Columbus, Ohio.

The tie means Detroit can’t catch Ottawa for the best record in the league, giving the Senators the Presidents’ Trophy.

St. Louis 2, Chicago 2 -- Pavol Demitra’s fluke goal early in the third period at Chicago helped the Blues extend their winless streak to four games. Demitra tied it 5:36 into the third when his centering pass deflected off the stick of Chicago’s Alex Zhamnov and past rookie goalie Michael Leighton.

Phoenix 1, Nashville 0 -- Sean Burke stopped 24 shots in his first action since March 20 and Branko Radivojevic scored with 2:58 left at Phoenix as the Coyotes ended a seven-game winless streak.

Tomas Vokoun had 26 saves but wasn’t able to end the Predators’ 14-game winless streak (0-9-3-2).