Glendale, AZ (Sports Network) - Jaromir Jagr tallied a goal and three
assists, leading the New York Rangers over the Phoenix Coyotes, 7-3, at
Jobing.com Arena.
Martin Straka had two goals and an assist, and Aaron Ward added a goal and two
assists for the Blueshirts, who were coming off a 4-2 loss against Florida on
Wednesday and have won two of their last three.
Henrik Lundqvist made 23 saves to secure his fifth win of the season.
Matt Jones, Patrick Fischer and Fredrik Sjostrom scored for Phoenix.
David LeNeveu started in net for the Coyotes, allowing all seven goals on 35
shots. The rookie was coming off a 6-2 win in his first start of the season
against Edmonton earlier in the week. Prior to that victory, the team had
dropped four straight.
Jones scored on a tip-in just 2:18 into the contest for Phoenix, but the
Rangers posted the next six tallies to jump out to a commanding lead which was
never relinquished.
Straka evened things up at 10:06 of the first, collecting his fifth goal of
the season for New York.
The Rangers offense exploded in the second stanza, scoring four times on
16 shots.
Matt Cullen got things started just 1:13 in. After moving behind the Coyotes'
net, the center threw the puck out in front. He then followed the play and
swatted at the disc, smacking Derek Morris's stick right into the puck and
past the netminder to put the Rangers up 2-1.
Just over three minutes later, Jagr's shot off the rebound gave New York a
two-goal lead. After Ward fired a shot on goal, Jagr came from behind the
net and knocked the puck out of mid-air 4:23 into the second.
Straka followed that up by collecting his second tally of the contest. After
stopping the initial shot by Marek Malik, LeNeveu let the puck get loose.
Jones moved in and tried to get the puck underneath the netminder to stop
play, but he couldn't get control, as Michael Nylander also got mixed up in
the scramble. Straka finally scored the goal with a backhand shot with 9:31
remaining.
Petr Prucha got credit for the final goal of the second, giving the Blueshirts
a commanding 5-1 lead. Darius Kasparaitis fired on net from the left point and
Prucha got the blade of his stick in the way, re-directing the puck in at
11:46.
The Rangers went up 6-1 on Ward's goal to open the scoring in the third
stanza. The tally was set up when Cullen won a one-on-one battle along the
boards, then skated out in front of the net. The defenseman faked a shot
before threading a cross-ice pass to Ward, who fired it into the net.
Phoenix added a goal at 11:26, as Fischer's wrist shot beat Lundqvist to make
it 6-2.
The Coyotes got their final score with 4:07 remaining in regulation on Fredrik
Sjostrom's goal.
Brendan Shanahan added a power-play goal for New York, firing the one-timer
into the net off a pass from Jagr for the final score of the game.
