Nash’s 2 gols propel Rangers

NEW YORK — Rick Nash scored twice while New York notched five straight goals, and the Rangers rolled over the Philadelphia Flyers 5-1 on Tuesday night.

Jordan Weal put Philadelphia up 1-0 before Nash, J.T. Miller, Paul Carey and Michael Grabner combined to make it 5-1 by the end of the second period. Nash had the first and last goal for the Rangers.

New York snapped a three-game skid and improve to 23-17-5. Henrik Lundqvist made 25 saves.

Philadelphia dropped to 20-16-8 with its first loss in four games. Brian Elliott gave up five goals on 21 shots before being replaced by Michal Neuvirth in the third period. Neuvirth stopped eight shots.

Entering their first meeting of the season, New York and Philadelphia were on significantly different trajectories. The Flyers had won four straight by an aggregate 21-11 margin, while the Rangers had scored two or fewer goals in eight of their last 10 games.

New York’s sputtering power play came through 16:50 into the period when Miller tipped Ryan McDonagh’s slap shot past Elliott. New York entered 3 for 31 on the man advantage dating to Dec. 19, but finished 1 for 2 against the Flyers.

DEVILS 4, ISLANDERS 1: Damon Severson scored twice 1:26 apart in New Jersey’s three-goal second period and the Devils ended a six-game skid.

Kyle Palmieri and Taylor Hall also scored for New Jersey, which was 0-3-3 since beating Detroit at home on Dec. 27. Keith Kinkaid, getting the start after Cory Schneider was a late scratch due to illness, stopped 25 shots.

Anders Lee scored and Jaroslav Halak made 38 saves as the Islanders snapped a three-game winning streak that started with a 5-4 shootout victory over the Devils here on Jan. 7.

New Jersey trailed less than two minutes in but got four straight goals starting with Palmieri’s score late in the first period.

Halak, who faced more than 35 shots on goal for his 10th straight start, made nice stops on in-close tries by Brian Boyle and Brian Gibbons with about 7 1/2 minutes left in the middle period to keep the score tied.

However, Severson gave the Devils the lead about 30 seconds later as he got the rebound of a shot by Gibbons and beat Halak from the right circle. It was the defenseman’s fifth goal of the season and first in 12 games.

Severson doubled the Devils’ lead on a one-timer from the deep center point near the blue line with 5:36 remaining.

Hall made it 4-1 with his team-leading 16th with 1:40 left as he skated up the left side on a 2-on-1 break and beat Halak on a shot the goalie got a piece of.

The Devils had a 30-17 advantage on shots on goal through the first 40 minutes.