With a sweep of their two weekend games, the Rangers have finally initiated a nice run and built some momentum for the playoffs; in their last seven games, they have won five and lost the other two in overtime. With the exception of that disastrous third period collapse in Montreal last Tuesday, the Rangers have done very well of late, exhibited a more consistent scoring touch, and find themselves in sixth place in the Eastern Conference.

Most importantly, captain Jaromir Jagr snapped his 12 game scoring drought with a goal in each of the weekend contests and his reawakening has led the Blueshirts to four very important points in the 4-3 victory in Buffalo on Saturday night and the 5-0 thrashing of the Florida Panthers last night at MSG.

The three days off after the disaster against the Canadiens were sufficient time to ponder their future and the Rangers were obviously a more confident team over the weekend. On Saturday at the HSBC Arena, they were in a tough battle with the red hot Sabres, a team equally as desperate for points in the playoff hunt. In the end, it was the Rangers who capitalized last when Ales Kotalik gave the puck away which resulted in the game-winning goal scored by Sean Avery with five minutes left.

Jagr broke his scoring drought early in the first period when he adroitly deflected the puck past Ryan Miller (his 16th) to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead, but Kotalik answered back less than three minutes later. Only one minute after that, Nigel Dawes restored their one goal lead.

Early in the second, Jason Pominville beat Henrik Lundqvist to again tie the score and six minutes later, Kotalik notched his second of the game and 18th of the season to give the Sabres their first lead at 3-2. But Brandon Dubinsky netted his 12th of the season to tie it up just 34 seconds later off a mad scramble in front of Ryan Miller. Both teams had been unable to protect their slim margins and the back and forth and very tense match was even after 40 minutes of action.

Late in the third, Kotalik inexplicably sent a backhand pass deep in the middle of his own zone and Brendan Shanahan intercepted it and fired a shot towards the net. But he shanked it and luckily, the puck found Avery on the doorstep. The miscue by Shanahan ended up being a good pass and Avery had an open net to fire the puck into, and he did not waste the opportunity.

Prior to the game-winning goal, Lundqvist came up with the save of the game as he stopped Thomas Vanek stone-cold on a breakaway. The Rangers, now 3-0 against the Sabres this season, came away with a much needed boost in confidence and two points.

The very next night at home, the Blueshirts showed no ill effects of the hard-fought win in Buffalo as they overwhelmed the Florida Panthers 5-0, giving Lundqvist his eighth shutout of the season. The Panthers, who had just staged a comeback Saturday night with a 2-1 overtime win in Philadelphia, were the team with little spark.

Scott Gomez got the Rangers off to a quick start by beating Tomas Vokoun at 7:53 of the opening period; it was the lone goal of the frame and ended up being the game-winner. When Marek Malik broke a 32-game scoring slump early in the second, the Garden faithful temporarily got off the much maligned defender’s back. Just over a minute after their second goal, Jagr displayed his renewed confidence with a deft move around Vokoun deep in the offensive zone to boost the Rangers lead to 3-0.

The Blueshirts continued to dominate the disinterested Panthers, but Vokoun was very solid in net and kept his club within striking range. But the Rangers weren’t about to duplicate the nightmare at the Bell Centre. A goal by Nigel Dawes (his 10th) at 5:54 of the third put the home team up 4-0 and dispensed any notions the Panther had of their own miraculous comeback. Martin Straka finished off the scoring at 9:32 and the 5-0 rout was complete.

Lundqvist stopped just 23 shots in a good effort; he was barely tested. Malik assisted on Dawes’ goal and received second star of the game honors. The Rangers are off until Thursday night when they face the Southeast Division leading Hurricanes at the RBC Center in Raleigh, North Carolina.