Wayne-Less Rangers Top Flyers

With Wayne Gretzky out, Petr Nedved was front and center for the New York Rangers.

Nedved, centering the top line in place of the injured Gretzky, had three goals and an assist as the Rangers beat the slumping Philadelphia Flyers 6-5 Sunday.

"(Coach John Muckler) gave him that responsibility, and Nedved did the job for us," Rangers goaltender Mike Richter said. "Good players will respond (in a situation like that)."

Nedved broke a 5-5 tie with a power-play goal with 6:28 left in regulation as the Rangers came back to win after the Flyers had scored three straight goals to tie the game in the third period.

Adam Graves had two goals and an assist as the Rangers won their second straight since Gretzky was sidelined Friday by a neck injury that is expected to keep him out for at least two weeks.

"When Gretzky went down, I met with Petr and I told him `You're the No. 1 guy on the team. That's your responsibility,"' Muckler said. "So far he's done the job,"

Nedved had an assist in the Rangers' 3-0 victory over Phoenix on Friday night, the first game the Rangers had played without Gretzky in three seasons.

"Obviously when we found out that Gretzky wasn't going to be able to play we had to change our game plan," Nedved said. "We have to play a more patient, defensive type of hockey. "

"I have more responsibilities. I'm going to have to step up and become a go-to guy."

After a 2-2 tie in th first period, the Rangers scored three straight goals in the second to take a 5-2 lead. It looked safe, until the Flyers tied it on goals by Daymond Langkow, John LeClair and Mikael Renberg.

But Nedved brought the roaring sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden to its feet with his tiebreaking shot from the right circle after a setup pass from Brian Leetch on the other side of the ice for his second career hat trick. It was the Rangers' fourth power-play goal in seven chances.

"We knew that we had to kill a penalty somewhere along the line and we didn't do it," Flyers captain Eric Lindros said. "With six or seven minutes left in the game we have to kill those penalties. We've been struggling at that."

It was the fourth win in five games for the Rangers, who began the day five points out of the final playoff spot in the NHL's Eastern Conference. The Flyers, 1-5-0 in their past six, missed a chance to take over the top spot in the East.

Scott Fraser also scored for New York. Lindros and Keith Jones also scored for Philadelphia.

The teams were tied 2-2 in the first period after Lindros and Jones scored for Philadelphia and Graves and Nedved scored for New York.

New York went ahead 3-2 at 3:57 of the second on a power-play goal by Fraser, who scored from the left circle. Nedved made it 4-2 at 6:09 on another power play after Graves put a cross-ice pass on his stick outside the crease with Flyers goalie John Vanbiesbrouck out of position. The Rangers went ahead 5-2 when Graves scored from the right circle at 12:59.

Langkow cut the Rangers' lead to two with a short-handed goal at 17:16. The Flyers pulled within 5-4 when LeClair, the NHL's leading goal scorer, scored his 38th on a power play in close at 1:21 of the third. The Flyers tied it at 5 when Renberg scored a power-play goal on a rebound at 8:41.

"The guys did a great job of coming back," Vanbiesbrouck said, "but we just couldn't do it (all the way)."

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