Rangers Spoil Return of Leetch With Win

Steve Rucchin and Petr Sykora combined to set up two goals, and the New York Rangers spoiled Brian Leetch’s return to Madison Square Garden with a 5-2 victory over the Boston Bruins on Monday night at New York.

Rucchin and Sykora assisted on defenseman Michal Rozsival’s power-play goal in the first period and Martin Straka’s even-strength tally in the second for the Rangers, who won their third straight after a six-game losing streak and stretched their Atlantic Division lead to four points over Philadelphia.

Boston had a two-game winning streak ended and is 3-8-2 in its last 13 games.

Leetch played a game against the Rangers for the first time in his 18 NHL seasons. He was with New York from 1988 to 2004 before being traded to Toronto and received a warm welcome back from Ranger fans.

Atlanta 5, Buffalo 0 -- Kari Lehtonen stopped 20 shots at Atlanta for his second shutout of the season and the Thrashers remained one point behind eighth-place Montreal in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

Buffalo suffered its second straight loss after an eight-game winning streak.

Montreal 4, Washington 2 -- Michael Komisarek got the first goal of his career as the Canadiens scored three times in slightly more than two minutes in the second period at Washington to end a three-game losing streak.

Komisarek, playing in his 123rd NHL game, had just one assist in 55 games this season.

Florida 6, Tampa Bay 5 -- Olli Jokinen scored on a breakaway with 1:44 left in overtime, lifting the Panthers over the Lightning at Sunrise, Fla.

The Panthers overcame the Lightning’s big third-period rally and won for the sixth time in seven games. Tampa Bay trailed 5-1 after two periods.

Nashville 4, St. Louis 2 -- Scott Nichol scored twice and Paul Kariya and Kimmo Timonen each had power-play goals as the Predators completed an unbeaten four-game homestand at Nashville.