Petr Nedved scored with 61 seconds remaining as the Rangers finished a somewhat disappointing homestand with a 3-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators.
Theo Fleury had a pair of power-play goals for New York, which went 3-2-1-1 on its longest homestand of the season and faces a season-high six-game trip that starts in San Jose and ends in Pittsburgh.
"We expect to do well, but it's going to be a grind," said Mike Richter, who made 23 saves. "You don't want to look back and say it would be nice to have a few home games."
Defenseman Brian Leetch had a pair of assists for the Rangers, who went 3-1-1 after opening the homestand with losses to Carolina and Nashville.
New York played most of the homestand shorthanded. Captain Mark Messier missed three games with shoulder and back injuries and star centre Eric Lindros sat out three with a bad knee.
"I know we've had a lot of guys playing excellent hockey," Messier said. "I think as a group and as a team, we have found ways to win on some nights."
Nedved scored off a feed from new linemate Matthew Barnaby, beating goaltender Patrick Lalime from the right faceoff dot for his 12th goal of the season.
"There was a lot of traffic, but I figured the best thing to do was to put it up high," and it worked out pretty good," said Nedved, who has six goals in the last 10 games.
The Senators had tied it just over six minutes earlier on a power-play goal by defenseman Wade Redden.
Defenceman Zdeno Chara scored a shorthanded goal for Ottawa, which had its road unbeaten streak snapped at three games (2-0-1).
Chara opened the scoring with 6:09 left in the first period. Skating down the right side on a 3-on-1, the former New York Islander beat Richter with a snap shot from the right circle.
Ottawa fell to 14-4-2 when scoring first.
The Senators played without discipline throughout. They were called for four straight minor penalties and eight through two periods.
"Definitely, a lack of discipline with so many penalties," coach Jacques Martin said. "They got two goals on the power plays, we got one. That was the difference in the game."
Among the penalties was a holding call to Martin Havlat with 4:50 left in the second. Captain Daniel Alfredsson argued and picked up a 10-minute misconduct.
Fleury tipped Leetch's point shot through Lalime's pads with five minutes left in the first period to tie it at 1-1, then redirected defenceman Vladimir Malakhov's feed past Lalime 12:10 into the second for a 2-1 lead.
Richter had stopped a pair of breakaways to keep the game tied at 1-1, getting his left pad on Havlat's shot 3:32 into the second before stretching to deny Shawn McEachern with his right pad some six minutes later.
Redden tied it 12:51 into the third when his slap shot from the left point deflected off Malakhov and snuck past Richter.
The Senators had a goal disallowed when rookie Ivan Ciernik was called for kicking the puck into the net.
