NEW YORK (AP) -- Special teams were special for the New York Rangers.

Power play goals by Alexandre Daigle and Mike York and a shorthanded goal by John MacLean helped the Rangers jump into seventh place in the Eastern Conference playoff race with a 4-2 victory over the Florida Panthers on Friday night.

	Mike Knuble and the Rangers ran right over Viktor Kozlov and the Panthers.

"I would have to think we're in the upper echelon (on the power play) at this point," Rangers coach John Muckler said. "It's working very well for us right now. It's a big part of our artillery."

The Rangers came out flying from the start, while the Panthers were flat. That set the tone for what Rangers forward Adam Graves called, "our best first period of the season."

Graves opened the scoring at 11:19 when he found a loose puck at the right crease and swept it past goalie Trevor Kidd, who was lying prone.

Daigle picked up his 100th NHL goal at 17:26 when he tipped in Mathieu Schneider's bullet from the right point.

Late in the period, both teams scored while Schneider was in the penalty box. On a faceoff, Panther forward Ray Whitney got tied up with rookie linesman Francois Gagnon. MacLean, who tipped the puck past the pair, raced around them to break in alone on Kidd. He fired a slap shot from the lower right circle that beat the goalie to the short side at 19:36.

"It was just a faceoff at the blue line," MacLean said. "Whitney tried to keep the puck in, and got caught in the linesman's feet and I just took off. It was a tough break for him, but a good one for us."

Panthers coach Terry Murray said that the linesman made a rookie mistake.

"It was poor positioning by the linesman," Murray said. "All he has to do is stand still. It was a lack of experience on his part, and it cost us."

Florida answered back 14 seconds later when Viktor Kozlov fed a perfect pass to Whitney, who got behind the Rangers' defense and beat goalie Mike Richter with a wrist shot.

Murray was not happy with the way his team started out.

"We had too many guys not carrying their end of the deal here," Murray said. "The bargain is for everybody to go out and play and play hard. We know (the Rangers) are going to come with their 'A' game, the best that they can, and in some situations, we didn't show that same preparation."

The coach wasn't the only one who was unhappy.

"Aside from (Wednesday night's win against) Toronto, we haven't played well for a while," Panthers defenseman Lance Pitlick said. "We're sliding, and if we don't turn it around -- and soon -- we'll be in a world of hurt."

The Panthers played better in the second period, and scored the only goal at 3:01 when Mark Parrish nudged a puck just over the goal line as it was moving through the crease.

The Rangers, who blew a two-goal lead in the third period on Wednesday night against Buffalo, were not going to play passively. They came out aggressively, and iced the game when York tipped Kevin Hatcher's point shot past Kidd at 6:21.

"I felt personally that we tried to sit on the lead against Buffalo," Petr Nedved said. "Tonight in the third period, we controlled what we can do rather than sit back and wait to see what they would do."

The win puts the Rangers one point ahead of Pittsburgh in the Eastern Conference race, though the Penguins have two games in hand. The loss for Florida leaves them only one point ahead of Washington, which tied Detroit 2-2. Both teams have 17 games left.

Whitney said it was up to the players how those final 17 games are going to go.

"It's disappointing that we came out as flat as we did," Whitney said. "We're going to have to treat every game as a playoff game from here on in."