by By ANDREW GROSS, STAFF WRITER, North Jersey Media Group , Herald News

Two power-play goals and 27 saves from Lundqvist paced a 4-0 win over the slumping Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday night at Madison Square Garden, vaulting the Rangers back into first place in the Atlantic Division.

The Rangers (24-14-3), who had been on a 1-3-1 slide, reached the midway point of their season leading the idle Philadelphia Flyers and Devils by one and two points, respectively. But the Flyers have two games in hand and the Devils three.

Lundqvist, now 12-1-1 in his career against the Penguins, missed Saturday?s 2-1 loss at Washington with a stomach bug but recovered in time to become just the fifth goalie in NHL history to start a career with four straight 20-win seasons. It also was Lundqvist?s first shutout this season and the 18th of his career.

Meanwhile, the fast-fading Penguins (19-17-4) lost their fifth straight and were shut out for the second time in seven games. They went 0-for-8 on the power play while the Rangers were 2-for-7.

Chris Drury made it 3-0 with a one-timer from Petr Prucha at 12:30 of the third period and Scott Gomez added an empty-net short-hander at 16:49.

The Penguins entered Monday?s game having scored just eight goals over their previous six games and the reigning Eastern Conference champions had lost 10 of their last 14, overall.

Meanwhile, Sidney Crosby had just four points in his last eight games and Evgeni Malkin had gone without a goal in his last seven games.

"They?re a good team," said Rangers coach Tom Renney, whose team lost in five games to Pittsburgh in last season?s conference semifinals. "We?ve all been through these types of stretches before. It looks awful for the moment but good teams come out of it. This team did exactly that last year."

Of course, the Penguins aren?t likely to acquire Marian Hossa, now with the Detroit Red Wings, again for a late playoff run.

The Penguins ? who came into the game on an 0-for-24 power-play slump ? could have used Hossa?s power-play acumen in the first period after quickly falling behind, 1-0, on Nigel Dawes? power-play goal at 1:00. The Rangers? power play came into the game ranked 26th in the NHL and in a 1-for-17 slump over their last five games but Dawes? shot went through Marc-Andre Fleury?s pads after hitting Pittsburgh defenseman Rob Scuderi?s stick.

But Prucha received four minutes for high-sticking Brooks Orpik at 3:27 and that turned into a two-man advantage when Dmitri Kalinin held Crosby at 4:23. But the Rangers? penalty killers held Penguins to one shot and the rest of the Penguins? power play was negated when Jordan Staal was called for interference with two seconds left in the five-on-three.

Still, the Penguins had six man-advantage opportunities in the first 40 minutes and took eight of their 12 first-period shots on the power play.

Yet the Rangers extended their lead to 2-0 on Paul Mara?s power-play goal at 17:27 of the second period, just two seconds after Matt Cooke was called for interference against Brandon Dubinsky. Gomez won his faceoff against Dustin Jeffrey cleanly and got it back to Mara at the blue line.

Lundqvist kept Pittsburgh off the board with a glove save on Pascal Dupuis at 15:22 of the second period after Crosby?s seeing-eye cross-ice pass. A little more than a minute earlier, Lundqvist kicked out his left pad to stop Ryan Whitney?s slap shot from the left point.

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