After thoroughly dominating the arch rival Philadelphia Flyers last night at the Wachovia Center, the Rangers head down the turnpike to battle another one of their division rivals, visiting the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center. The Flyers controlled the puck and tempo for the first 5 minutes of last night’s games as backup goalie Stephen Valiquette was forced to make some tough saves to keep Philadelphia off the board but after that it was New York who controlled the game.

Nigel Dawes got the scoring started for the Rangers when Chris Drury fed the speedy winger a perfect pass to spring him down the right side. Dawes faked a slap shot to get Flyer goalie Antero Nittymaki down to his knees and leaving an open net which Dawes hit to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. It was a good sign for New York to see the third line and especially Drury to produce an early goal. It set the stage for a big night for the blue shirts.

A little bit later, the struggling Petr Prucha cashed in on a juicy rebound by Nittymaki on a perfect shot by Dan Girardi. It looked as if Girardi purposely fired a low softer slap shot to force a rebound for the crashing forward. After head Coach Tom Renney blistered his team in practice the day before, screaming for his forwards to get to the net, the guy who has built his reputation on doing this finally came through. Prucha has been disappointing so far this season but a goal like that could be just what he needs to snap out of his funk. Time will tell.

Chris Drury then scored a power play goal 23 seconds into the second period which took the air out of the Philly fans for good. With the goal and assist, Drury now should have his confidence back as he needs to continue to play this way night in and night out.

Valiquette, making just his seventh start this season, notched his first career shutout in the NHL by stopping 20 shots. “I’m pumped, yeah, but with a 4-0 win, we’re more excited about that as a team then a shutout for me, that’s for sure,” the goalie said. He will step aside tonight as The King will be back in net for the Devil game.

 The Rangers have now won 3 out of 4, a good start for the second half of the season. However, if the team can’t feed off of last night’s dominating win tonight against another one of their long time rivals, then it is all for naught.