Mar 27, 2003 4 min read

NEW YORK (AP) – The Pittsburgh Penguins came into Madison Square Garden without Mario Lemieux, without a win in over a month, and without a chance to make the playoffs. They skated off with the two points the New York Rangers desperately needed.

Martin Straka and Tomas Surovy scored power-play goals in the first period as the Penguins snapped a 16-game winless streak and put another crimp in the Rangers’ postseason hopes with a 3-1 victory Wednesday night.

“It was a must-win game for them, and for us they are all must-wins because it’s been a frustrating couple of weeks,” said Pittsburgh forward Steve McKenna, who spent last season with the Rangers.

Sebastien Caron made 33 saves and was 11:46 away from his third shutout in 22 career games when Brian Leetch scored his 10th goal.

Eric Meloche also scored for the Penguins, who were 0-14-2 since defeating St. Louis on Feb. 22 and just two winless games away from tying the worst stretch in club history.

“This is the National Hockey League. Nobody is going to come out and give you two points because they’re out of the playoffs,” Rangers forward Anson Carter said.

The Rangers trail the New York Islanders by six points for the final postseason berth in the Eastern Conference and have only five games remaining. Any combination of five points gained by the Islanders or not acquired by the Rangers will eliminate the Rangers from the playoffs for a club-record sixth straight season.

“Time isn’t on our side,” Rangers center Eric Lindros said. “Every game is important and we blew it tonight.”

New York lost three of five games to Pittsburgh, losing the season series for the fourth straight season. The Rangers have eight losses to Pittsburgh, Atlanta and Buffalo – three of the bottom four teams in the East.

“If I had the answers to all those things, I wouldn’t be a fourth-line left winger,” McKenna said.

The Penguins hadn’t scored more than two goals since registering three in each of the first two games of the winless streak, and their power play connected only six times in 64 opportunities during the slump.

The unit didn’t figure to jump to life without Lemieux, but it did. Lemieux, fifth in the NHL scoring race, missed the game after back spasms flared up Tuesday.

The Penguins took advantage of the Rangers’ recently stellar penalty-killing to grab a 2-0 lead.

“It’s been a long time. It’s been weird,” Caron said of the sudden lead.

Brian Holzinger made a pass from the left boards up to the point to Dan Focht. The defenseman sent a soft chip shot down toward the slot where Straka got a stick on the puck and sent it skittering between the pads of Dan Blackburn at 7:18.

The Rangers had won three straight and killed 26 straight penalties over the previous five games, not allowing a power-play goal since March 10.

“I’ve been through some of the losses, and you just can’t put a finger on it,” said forward Rico Fata, dealt to the Penguins by New York in the Feb. 10 deal for Alex Kovalev. “Maybe we were just a little more ready.”

Surovy made it a two-goal lead and made the Penguins 2-for-2 on the man advantage with his fourth goal this season and first in 18 games. This time Pittsburgh capitalized on a too many men on the ice penalty.

Just 20 seconds into the advantage at 19:48, Surovy took a pass from Holzinger, drove to the net and put a shot inside the left post. Even with their recent fine play, the Rangers still entered with the seventh-worst penalty-killing unit in the NHL.

Surovy scored goals in three of his first four games after being recalled from the minors on Feb. 14. He managed only five assists since his initial goal spurt.

Meloche made it 3-0 at 1:53 of the third when he intercepted a pass from behind the net by Darius Kasparaitis and backhanded a shot past Blackburn.

NOTES: Blackburn, who made 20 saves, got his first start since Feb. 17 over injured Mike Dunham. Blackburn stopped all 28 shots on Saturday in a win at Philadelphia after Dunham hurt his groin in the first period. … Caron made his NHL debut on Jan. 11 against the Rangers. … Lemieux has missed 13 games this season. … Pittsburgh had been behind or tied entering the third period in 52 of the previous 64 games.