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Jaromir Jagr broke New York's single-season points record - and gave the Rangers a little cushion in the Atlantic Division race.
Jagr assisted on four straight goals in a 5-1 victory over the New York Islanders on Wednesday night to pass Hall of Famer Jean Ratelle on the team scoring list and help the Rangers move four points ahead of second-place Philadelphia. "It's a big honour for me," Jagr said. "I'm glad I did it in the first period. "We need the points. We want to stay in first in the division."
Drawing chants of "MVP! MVP!" from the many Rangers fans at Nassau Coliseum, Jagr broke the tie with Ratelle at 7:23 of the first, setting up Petr Prucha's power-play goal for point No. 110. Jagr also assisted on Martin Straka's three goals.
"We had a lot of chances," Jagr said. "Sometimes it might look easy like tonight and other times it's really tough.
"That's just hockey."
Despite his emergence again as one of the league's elite scorers, Jagr plans to retire when his contract expires in two years.
"I'll be 36. I'm going back to Europe," the New York Times reported Wednesday.
Jagr, trying to hold off Joe Thornton for his sixth NHL scoring title, is the clear favourite to win the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player, an award he won in 1998-99 with Pittsburgh. Jagr has 113 points in 73 games, seven more than Thornton has in 70 games for Boston and San Jose.
"Without question, he's the MVP," Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro said. "Every time he gets the puck on his stick, he makes a good play.
"He's tough to defend. Them getting in the playoffs is great for hockey. I think the new rules have helped them out considerably. They're a tough team to play against."
Jagr also has an NHL-leading 52 goals, tied with Adam Graves for the team record. The 34-year-old Czech star had a chance to break that tie on a breakaway midway through the third but DiPietro stopped him with a pad save.
"It wasn't a good shot," Jagr said. "I thought someone was coming up behind me and rushed it.
"I'd like to have that one back."
Ratelle had 109 points in 1971-72, and Graves set the goal record in 1993-94.
Henrik Lundqvist also broke the Rangers' record for victories by a rookie, making 18 saves for his 30th win. The Swedish Olympic goalie improved to 30-10-9 to break a tie with Jim Henry (1941-42) and Johnny Bower (1953-54).
"It's a big number for me, especially in my first season," Lundqvist said. "The whole team played a great game."
Blair Betts also scored for the Rangers. Alexei Yashin scored his 25th goal for the Islanders, 10 points out of the final Eastern Conference playoff spot.
Prucha's goal, the rookie's 29th, opened the scoring at 7:23 of the first. Straka scored at 8:53 and 13:59 of the first and completed his three-goal outing at 12:14 of the second with his 18th goal of the season.
The Rangers, coming off a 5-4 shootout victory over Buffalo on Monday night at Madison Square Garden, will face Eastern Conference-leading Ottawa on Thursday night as they close in on their first playoff spot since 1997.
The Rangers and Flyers are fighting for the Atlantic title, with the winner in position to get the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference.
DiPietro, also in goal Tuesday night in a 2-0 loss in Montreal, made 17 saves. The Islanders have lost six of their last eight games.
Jagr is 16th on the NHL's career goals list with 589, 22nd in assists with 833 and 14th in points with 1,422 in 1,100 games with Pittsburgh, Washington and New York. In 73 career games against the Islanders, he has 51 goals and 71 assists for 122 points.
"He's a special hockey player," Islanders interim coach Brad Shaw said. "Early in his career, he looked like this.
"I don't know what happened in a few of his middle years, but certainly this year, he's found the love of the game again. We stood around and watched him make a lot of plays. We gave him too much respect and too much room."
Notes: The games was the sixth of eight games between the team this season. The Rangers have won the last four - the last three at the Coliseum - after losing the first two. ... Jagr extended his points streak to 10 games. He has nine goals and 12 assists during the run. ... The Rangers' Colton Orr and the Islanders' Eric Godard fought in the first period, moments after Godard and Petteri Nokelainen hammered Darius Kasparaitis into the end boards with simultaneous checks. Orr also fought John Erskine in the second. ... The Islanders activated Nokelainen from injured reserve. The 20-year-old Finn, selected 16th overall in the 2004 draft, missed 58 games because of patella tendinitis in his right knee. The Islanders sent centre Jeremy Colliton and defenceman Rob Collins to Bridgeport of the AHL.
The Saskatoon Blades scored four unanswered goals en route to a 5-3 win over the Regina Pats in Western Hockey League playoff action on Wednesday.
Saskatoon leads the best-of-seven series 3-1. Devin Setoguchi, Brad Cole, Wacey Rabbit, Joe Barnes and Zdenek Bahensky scored for the Blades, who got 28 saves from Anton Khudobin. Matt Robinson scored the game's first two goals for the Pats, while Petr Kalus also scored. David Reekie made 17 saves in a losing cause.
Toronto Maple Leafs forward Jason Allison underwent surgery to repair a broken bone in his left hand, the team said Thursday.
Allison, injured Saturday night against Montreal, underwent the procedure on Tuesday. He won't play again this season as the recovery time is six weeks.
He had 17 goals and 43 assists in 66 games this season.
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