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NEW YORK (AP) -- With the New York Rangers on their best streak
of the year, John Muckler was concerned about a one-week vacation.
|  | | Stephane Fiset blocks this John MacLean shot, but MacLean got two others through to go with his two assists. |
The Rangers returned from their break and eased their coach's
fears quickly Wednesday night, scoring six goals in the first
period and cruising to an 8-3 win over Los Angeles, the Kings
second blowout loss in as many days.
"I was worried about our club," Muckler said after the Rangers
improved their unbeaten streak to five games (4-0-1). "We had a
six-day layoff and we practiced every second day. We had a lot of
jump in the first period."
John MacLean had two goals and two assists and Todd Harvey
scored twice in the first 20 minutes against the Kings, who lost at
New Jersey on Tuesday 7-1.
"That was a good first period," Muckler said. "The best first
period we've played all of the year."
Jamie Storr, who allowed three first-period goals during a 7-1
loss to the Devils, was replaced by Stephane Fiset to start the
second period for the second straight night.
"Our goaltending has been very good all year -- not tonight,"
Los Angeles coach Andy Murray said. "It was as weak as our overall
team play."
Storr, who made 11 saves Tuesday, turned away 11 again as Los
Angeles, which played for the fourth time in six nights, lost its
ninth straight at Madison Square Garden. The Kings' last road win
over the Rangers was March 12, 1990.
"My feeling was he was going to see that first period
through," Murray said. "To give up the number of goals that we
did is hard to believe."
The Rangers grabbed the lead with 15:02 left when Harvey took a
shot from the slot that hit off Storr's skate and trickled into the
net. Harvey, in his 300th career game, broke a 17-game scoring
drought.
Nearly nine minutes passed, before the Rangers scored five goals
in a 4:58 spurt.
"We have not had one of those since I've been here," said
Harvey, who was acquired in 1998. "It seems like everything we
touched went into the net. When things are like that, you just sit
back and say wow."
Tim Taylor took a backhand pass from Alexandre Daigle and beat
Storr between the legs at 13:45 for his sixth of the season.
The advantage grew to 3-0 just 38 seconds later when Harvey took
a beautiful pass from Kevin Stevens in the slot and scored his
second of the game and third overall.
With Rob Blake off, Daigle and Taylor worked the puck to MacLean
who stuffed in a shot 2:23 later. One minute after that, passes
from Jan Hlavac and Petr Nedved, who returned from a groin injury,
set up Mike Knuble, who scored on the backhand to make it 5-0.
Theo Fleury closed the outburst 57 seconds later when he intercepted Jason Blake's clearing attempt and fired it in for his
seventh goal.
"Well, that was the whole game in the first period," Taylor
said. "A team like LA, to come in after getting beat like they
did, it's kind of a scary situation for us because we know they are
going to come out fired up."
The Kings did anything but start strong.
New York made it 8-0 in the second on Mike York's ninth goal, on
the power play at 1:45, and MacLean's third of the season from
Taylor with 4:56 left in the period.
The Rangers, the NHL's worst power-play team, scored two man-advantage goals for the first time.
"I was pretty impressed with the way we played," said Mike
Richter, who made 45 saves. "It took us about 10 minutes to get
things going. Then we seemed to get going and got a few pucks in
the net and took off from there."
The Kings, who outshot the Rangers 48-31, scored all their goals
in the third.
Rob Blake scored 39 seconds in on the power play, Marko
Tuomainen added a power-play goal at 6:54 and Ziggy Palffy scored
eight seconds later.
Los Angeles, which has the most road points with 22, lost two
straight away from home for the first time this season.
"I think anyone who follows our team would be surprised at the
last two games," Murray said.
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ALSO SEE
NHL Scoreboard
Los Angeles Clubhouse
NY Rangers Clubhouse
RECAPS
NY Rangers 8
Los Angeles 3
Washington 4
Atlanta 0
Pittsburgh 6
Carolina 3
Detroit 5
Edmonton 1
Florida 3
Nashville 2
Toronto 5
NY Islanders 1
Dallas 5
Calgary 1
Anaheim 4
Colorado 2
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Michael Knuble puts goal number five on the board for New York.
avi: 1152 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Alexandre Daigle sets up Tim Taylor for the backhand goal.
avi: 1151 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Zigmund Palffy gets the easy set up from Vladimir Tsyplakov.
avi: 1211 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
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