The Toronto Maple Leafs played at the Air Canada Centre for the first time in nearly three weeks on Saturday but home was anything but sweet in their return.

Jaromir Jagr tallied a goal and three assists as the New York Rangers used five power-play goals to drub the listless Leafs 6-1 in Toronto.

New York Rangers right-winger Jaromir Jagr (right) celebrates his goal with teammate Michal Rozsival during the first period on Saturday.
(Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)

"Tonight was obviously an awful hockey game for our team," said Leafs captain Mats Sundin. "We went to the penalty box way too many times."

Petr Prucha added another two goals with Blair Betts, Brendan Shanahan and Martin Straka all finding the net for New York (19-15-4).

Steve Valiquette, starting in favour of No. 1 goalie Henrik Lundqvist, made 27 saves to earn the win. Both of Valiquette's wins on the season have come against the Leafs in Toronto.

"It was an outstanding game for us, probably our best effort of the year," he said. "There's something about coming to Toronto."

Darcy Tucker scored the lone goal for Toronto in a stunningly disappointing result for a team that, at the very least, managed to tread water by going 2-3-2 during its longest road trip since 1999.

"It's no fun doing that in front of your home crowd," said Leafs forward Alexander Steen. "The Rangers came in and they handed it to us in front of our home fans.

"It's not something that we enjoy for sure. I don't know what else to say — it's tough losing, especially this way."

Andrew Raycroft allowed five goals on 29 shots before being pulled in favour of Scott Clemmensen midway through the second period.

Raycroft, who was starting in place of injured starter Vesa Toskala, wasn't given much in terms of support. The Leafs (15-16-8) amassed 10 penalties in the game's first 30 minutes — resulting in four New York power-play goals.

"That's a tough game to sit through when you're getting beaten that bad that early," said Toronto head coach Paul Maurice.

The game was highly anticipated based on the return of super pest Sean Avery, who was slapped with a $2,500 US fine for a pre-game altercation with Tucker in his last visit to Toronto on Nov. 10.

But New York's early fireworks pushed any notions of revenge aside, while Avery eventually earned an assist early in the second period.

Rangers score early, often

Betts used a wraparound goal to open the scoring for the Rangers early. After a long shoot-in from the blue-line, Betts picked the puck up in a scramble behind the net and quickly tucked it in the net to Raycroft's right before the goaltender could close off the opening.

The centreman's second goal of the season made the score 1-0 for New York at 12:29 of the first.

"The first one sucked and then we didn't recover from it," said Raycroft.

Jagr doubled the Rangers' lead on the power play just minutes later. With Toronto's Andy Wozniewski in the box for slashing, Jagr banged home a loose puck from a steep angle for his tenth goal of the season.

But the first period was merely an appetizer for what was to come as the Rangers capitalized three times on five consecutive Leafs' penalties in the ensuing period.

Prucha pushed the Rangers lead to 3-0 at 16:03 in the second. Nik Antropov's clearing attempt in the Leafs' zone was stopped at the blue-line by Michal Rozsival and dumped back into right corner.

Avery reached the puck first and smartly threw it to the front of the net, where Prucha tipped it past Raycroft for his third goal of the season.

The onslaught continued as Shanahan took a feed from Jagr between the circles and unloaded a slapshot through traffic that handcuffed Raycroft and increased the lead to 4-0 at 7:54 of the second.

By the time Hal Gill accidentally tipped a long Martin Straka shot into the Toronto net at the 10:31 mark, Raycroft's night was over and New York held a 5-0 lead.

"We tried to go back out in the second and have a good couple first shifts," said Tucker. "But we took some penalties and boom, they picked us apart on the power play."

Mark Bell took Toronto's sixth consecutive penalty with a slash just as the second period expired to give New York another man advantage.

Poor defensive coverage on the ensuing Leafs penalty to start the third period resulted in a wide-open Prucha banging home a cross-crease pass past Clemmensen for his second goal of the game at 1:09.

"At a certain point tonight, [we] started thinking about tomorrow night's game and keeping shifts short and rolling the lines over and playing a safe, smart third period," said Shanahan.

Tucker did well to knock down a long pass just inside the blue-line from Bell and on the ensuing breakaway he quickly lifted a shot past Valiquette to get the Leafs on the board at 8:20 of the third.

The two teams have split their four meeting this season, with each team winning twice on the road.

With files from the Canadian Press