Matt Cooke knocked in a rebound with 4:31 left, snapping a tie in his first game since missing 17 with a broken jaw and lifting the Vancouver Canucks to a 3-2 victory over the Rangers last night.

When Rangers forward Michael Nylander mishandled the puck in front, Cooke swooped in and smacked it in for his fourth goal and first since October 29.

Todd Bertuzzi and Daniel Sedin also scored for the Canucks, who won their third straight and snapped a threegame road losing streak.

Petr Prucha scored twice for the Rangers, who had a five-game winning streak at home.

New York coach Tom Renney was looking forward to this game because he felt it would be a good test for the first-place Rangers. But the Canucks, who had only five road victories coming in, left with the win and a tie for the Northwest Division lead.

Just 1:06 after Sedin gave the Canucks a 2-1 lead, Prucha tied it at 7:41. It was his second tying goal of the night, his 15th goal of the season, ninth in a sixgame scoring streak, and 12th in 12 games. Prucha has three two-goal games in five contests. He also got the Rangers even at 8:28 of the second period.

While parked in his now familiar spot in front of the net during a power play, the 23-year-old rookie deflected Tom Poti’s point shot into the pads of goalie Alex Auld. He was there when the rebound popped back to him and quickly lifted a shot into the top of the net for his 14th goal.

Despite standing only 6-feet, Prucha is fearless when it comes to playing down low. He has eight power-play goals.

Bertuzzi, already disliked at Madison Square Garden for being a rugged player and a former Islander, took a long lead pass across three lines from defenseman Ed Jovanovski and came in on a breakaway. He let a quick shot go from the slot and beat Henrik Lundqvist for his ninth goal, giving Vancouver a 1-0 lead just 1:01 into the frame. It was just his second goal in 12 games.

***

MINNESOTA 4, ISLANDERS 3 Marc Chouinard’s power-play goal in the final seconds of the second period gave the Minnesota Wild a 4-3 victory over the Islanders last night in a game marred by an injury to New York forward Jason Blake.

Blake, New York’s second-leading scorer with 24 points on 13 goals and 11 assists, was taken off the ice on a stretcher after crashing headfirst into the boards.

Blake was taken to a hospital. The severity of the injury was not known.

With 12:40 left in the third period, Blake and Wild defenseman Kurtis Foster were chasing a loose puck in the Minnesota zone. Foster’s stick caught Blake’s skate, sending him into the boards headfirst in the corner.

After being down for nearly 10 minutes, with Islanders team doctor Elliot Pellman tending to him, Blake was helped to his feet and placed on the stretcher.

Chouinard’s goal came just 9 seconds after Islanders forward Arron Asham took the second of three penalties in a 3-minute span, and helped the Wild to their second outright win in their last eight games.

Marion Gaborik scored twice and Willie Mitchell added a goal for the Wild, who got 31 saves from Manny Fernandez. Chris Campoli, Miroslav Satan, and Mark Parrish scored for New York, and Rick DiPietro turned aside 18 shots.

The Wild made it 2-0 at 7:01 when Gaborik finished off a 2-on-1 break with Walz by one-timing a cross-ice feed past DiPietro to the short side. It was the Wild’s third shot on goal.

The Islanders got back into the game with their first shot of the second period, with Campoli’s left-point slapper beating a screened Fernandez at 2:15.

The Islanders then scored twice in a 56-second span to take the lead.

Satan’s team-leading 14th goal tied it at 2-2 on a power play.

***

DEVILS 2, OILERS 1 Viktor Kozlov and Brian Gionta scored in a shootout and Martin Brodeur stopped Jarret Stoll and Ales Hemsky in the tiebreaker to give the Devils a 2-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers.

Richard Matvichuk scored in regulation and Brodeur made 29 saves to help the Devils end a four-game losing streak. Cory Cross scored for the Oilers and Ty Conklin made 27 saves in his first appearance since October 21.

Matvichuk scored his first goal as a Devil at 11:51 of the first period. Alexander Mogilny set up the goal with a back pass from deep in the Oilers’ zone.

Cross tied it at 8:23 of the second. Cross, along the right boards, took a shot that glanced off the leg of Devils forward Jamie Langenbrunner and past Brodeur.

The Oilers, held to five shots in the first period, came alive in the second with 12. Brodeur made sharp saves against Ryan Smyth and Stoll to keep the score tied.

In the overtime, Oilers defenseman Shawn Horcoff got a hooking penalty at 2:22, giving the Devils several good chances to get the win. Conklin was equal to the challenge, making saves on Kozlov, Gionta, and Langenbrunner.