Devils hand Rangers another beating, 6-1

The defense-minded New Jersey Devils put on a show of offense at the expense of the New York Rangers on Sunday at Madison Square Garden.

Patrik Elias and Sergei Brylin each scored two goals and Martin Brodeur made 35 saves in a 6-1 victory for the Devils, finishing off a bad weekend for the Rangers. On Saturday night in Toronto, the Maple Leafs beat them, 9-2.

“This is great for our confidence, we needed this,” Devils Coach Claude Julien said. “This game meant a lot to our hockey club. I thought our guys played well. They were very responsible in following our game plan. The effort was certainly there.”

Jamie Langenbrunner and Zach Parise also scored for New Jersey, two points behind the Rangers for the Atlantic Division lead.

“We have some soul searching,” New York’s Brendan Shanahan said. “We have a really good group. I don’t think there is a whole lot of examination needed to know what went wrong the last 48 hours.”

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Chicago 2, Colorado 1 -- Tuomo Ruutu and Adrian Aucoin scored, and Nikolai Khabibulin stopped 28 shots to lead the Blackhawks over the visiting Avalanche.

Chicago won its second straight game and fourth in its last five. The Blackhawks improved to 7-1-3 under Coach Denis Savard, who replaced Trent Yawney on Nov. 27.

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Nashville 2, St. Louis 1 -- Kimmo Timonen scored a power-play goal with 1:49 left in overtime, giving the Predators the win over the host Blues, who fell to 0-2-2 under Coach Andy Murray.

Nashville has won 11 straight over St. Louis, including three one-goal games this season.