PHILADELPHIA – Jaromir Jagr scored his NHL-leading 41st and 42nd goals and also had an assist to lead the New York Rangers to their seventh straight victory, 6-1 over the Philadelphia Flyers last night.

The Atlantic Division-leading Rangers have a four-point lead over the second-place Flyers. Kevin Weekes made 36 saves for New York, first in its division this late in the season for the first time since 1995-96.

The Rangers, 3-0-2 against Philadelphia this season, didn’t need a lot of shots to beat the Flyers. They scored three goals – two on the power play – in a 1:58 span early in the second period and had four goals in a 6:46 span.

Jagr, the NHL leader with 91 points, scored two power-play goals to open the second period and give the Rangers a 3-0 lead. Jagr’s second goal gave him 1,400 career points.

The goal also knocked out Flyers goalie Robert Esche, who allowed three goals on only eight shots. Coach Ken Hitchcock put in rookie Antero Niittymaki, the tournament MVP of the Olympics after he led Finland to the silver medal. Hitchcock has tried to defuse the situation between his two Olympic goalies by calling the starting job a competition, not a controversy.

While the Flyers could truly have a controversy now, Niittymaki didn’t immediately help his case when only 27 seconds in he allowed Blair Betts’ fifth goal and the Rangers’ third in the 1:58 span.

Fred Meyer punched his fist in the air and got a rise out of the crowd when his fifth goal of the season on the power play made it 4-1.Only 22 seconds later, though, Jason Ward had a clean look in front of Niittymaki and scored his 10th goal to make it 5-1. The Rangers only had 11 shots on goal at that point and both Ward and Betts had open shots at the net.

The Flyers have lost six of their last eight.

The lopsided shot total started from the first face-off, but the Flyers were unable to capitalize against Weekes. They went scoreless in the first, even with three power plays and a 13-1 shot advantage midway through the period.

The Rangers went ahead 1-0 late in the first when Jagr set up Michael Nylander for a power-play goal on only New York’s third shot of the game.

Martin Rucinsky scored near the end of the game for the Rangers, who seem poised to make the playoffs for the first time since 1997. They won their sixth straight road game and fourth straight in Philadelphia.

Notes: The Flyers honored C Peter Forsberg and Niittymaki for winning medals at the Olympics….Betts returned after missing 16 games with a knee injury and scored his first goal since November 24….The Philly fans found a new target to boo – themselves. When attendance was announced as a sellout, they oddly booed. … The Flyers’ Donald Brashear was called for five penalties with 1:52 left when he attempted to fight Darius Kasparaitis. Brashear received a 10-minute misconduct, game misconduct, fighting major, and minors for hooking and instigating. He finished the game with 35 penalty minutes and also got an automatic one-game suspension.