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Rangers batter 2003's top overall pick

NEW YORK - Petr Nedved and Vladimir Malakhov had a goal and an assist against 18-year-old Marc-Andre Fleury on Wednesday to help the Rangers beat the Penguins 6-2 and end a three-game losing streak.

Nedved's power-play goal 1:18 into the third gave the Rangers a 4-1 lead. He helped set up Tom Poti's goal 3:02 later.

New York's 42-year-old captain, Mark Messier, scored his seventh of the season with 8:11 left in the second. Messier already was in his sixth season and seven months from his second Stanley Cup when Fleury was born late in 1984.

Fleury made 36 saves in his 11th game and first since the initial year of his contract officially went into effect.

"I thought he looked awesome," Messier said of Fleury. "There's a lot to learn at this level."

Pittsburgh, which has lost the first four games of a five-game road trip, played most of the game without leading scorer Rico Fata. He injured his hamstring when he collided with Eric Lindros in the first. His status is unknown.

Lindros, playing his third game since a chest injury forced him to miss seven, scratched his cornea when he was struck in the face by Josef Melichar's high stick. He will be re-evaluated today.

The Rangers came out sharp, firing 16 shots at Fleury in the first period. They needed only 27 seconds to solve the goalie, chosen No. 1 overall in the June draft.

Malakhov's shot from the left point rebounded to Martin Rucinsky, who carried the puck left to right across the front of the net and put a shot in.

Dan Focht got Pittsburgh even at 6:22 with his first career goal. But Anson Carter gave the Rangers a 2-1 lead with his third goal of the season but first in six games.

Jamie Lundmark's pass across the front of the goal hit traffic in front and sat in the crease. Carter took three whacks at the puck before nudging it between Fleury's pads 9:31 into the game.

Pittsburgh has allowed 21 goals in the past three games, 12 by Fleury. And it has been outscored 22-4 in the first.

"It doesn't really matter who scores first because we came back and made it 1-1," Fleury said. "But there were six, and that's too much for me."

RED WINGS 6, STARS 2: Steve Yzerman and Pavel Datsyuk scored two goals to help visiting Detroit extend Dallas' losing streak to four, its longest since 1995-96.

Detroit scored on its first shot 1:07 into the game when Yzerman deflected Jiri Fischer's shot from the right point. Yzerman scored a power-play goal on a wrist shot from the top of the right circle with 51 seconds left in the period to make it 2-0.

Brenden Morrow's goal with 8:18 left in the second pulled Dallas to within 3-2, but Mathieu Schneider answered with his third career short-handed goal 59 seconds into the third. Datsyuk extended the lead to 5-2 on the power play 4:27 later and scored on a breakaway with 37 seconds left.

CAPITALS 7, HURRICANES 1: Robert Lang recorded his first hat trick and Dainius Zubrus scored twice for host Washington, which had lost 10 of its past 12 entering the game.

Lang, who also had an assist, extended his team-best point streak to seven games with a wrist shot through the legs of Kevin Weekes 1:24 into the game.

The second capped a third-period flurry in which the teams combined to score four goals in 1:16. Zubrus started the spurt with his second goal of the game 3:34 into the period. Lang completed the hat trick by knocking in a loose puck in front of the net with 5:16 left.

DUCKS 5, LEAFS 1: Andy McDonald and Sergei Fedorov had two goals and an assist for host Anaheim.

Anaheim broke it open with a three-goal second. The Ducks, 1-for-37 on the power play in their previous nine games against Toronto, made it 2-1 on their first man advantage when McDonald jammed home a rebound 4:56 into the second.

Fedorov scored about 21/2 minutes later, beating Ed Belfour high to the glove side with a 25-foot slap shot from the right circle after a turnover. He scored again with 1:25 left in the period when his pass into the slot deflected in off defenseman Ken Klee's leg.

FLAMES 6, BLACKHAWKS 2: Rookie Matthew Lombardi recorded his first hat trick and Dean McAmmond scored twice for visiting Calgary, which ended a three-game losing streak. Entering the game, the Flames had scored a league-low 24 goals and had not scored more than four in a game this season.

The Flames scored three goals in 4:04 to take a 5-1 lead in the second and chase Michael Leighton, who allowed five goals on 21 shots.

DEVILS 2, SABRES 2: Maxim Afinogenov's third-period goal gave Buffalo a 2-2 tie with New Jersey in the first regular-season game in Rochester, N.Y. The Sabres are trying to attract more fans from the Rochester area, which is 70 miles east of Buffalo.

Jamie Langenbrunner gave the Devils, 5-0-2 in their past seven, a 2-1 lead midway through the third with a short-handed goal. But Afinogenov slipped the puck between the post and goalie Martin Brodeur's right arm with 6:47 left.

MILWAUKEE - Lloyd Pettit, longtime announcer for the Blackhawks and a member of the Hall of Fame, died late Tuesday. He was 76. Pettit started as an analyst on Blackhawks television broadcasts in 1961 and began play-by-play in 1963, a job he held through the 1974-75 season. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1986.