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  Wednesday, Dec. 15 7:00pm ET
Harvey, MacLean each score twice
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE

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, John MacLean
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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NHL Scoreboard

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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
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