• Flyers 5, Rangers 3: Something you never want to see at a sporting event is a player carted off on a stretcher. That's just what fans and players at The Garden witnessed last night. After a violent collision in the 3rd period with Mike Knuble of the Flyers, Brendan Shanahan was taken off the ice on a stretcher. Shanahan, the Rangers' leading goal-scorer, was kept overnight for observation at St. Vincent's. The Rangers said that X-rays and CAT scan were negative and that Shanahan was alert and moving his extremities.

  Knuble escaped the collision with fractures to his cheekbone and orbital bone. He is expected to have surgery when the swelling goes down. Shanahan wasn't the only Ranger forced to leave the game because of injury. Goalie Henrik Lundqvist and defenseman Marek Malik both left the game with shoulder injuries.

• Devils 2, Islanders 0: Martin Brodeur added to his league-leading shutout tally last night, notching his 11th shutout of the season. Brodeur stopped 26 shots in the victory. John Madden and Sergei Brylin scored for the Devils, who have won 5-straight against the Islanders.

Photo of Brendan Shanahan by AP/Bill Kostroun