Thirteen years ago, Kevin Weekes was an 18-year-old kid who dreamed of playing for the Florida team that had made him a second-round pick in the NHL Entry Draft.

On Sunday night at Madison Square Garden, Weekes was the Panthers' worst nightmare -- stopping 34 shots in a 2-1 Rangers victory that lifted the Blueshirts back into a tie with New Jersey for first place in the NHL's Atlantic Division.

Weekes, the game's No. 1 star, came within 10 minutes of his 20th career shutout on Sunday. Not even Florida's third-period goal could put a damper on his sensational performance, as he left the ice with an ecstatic crowd chanting his name -- a prolonged cry of "Weeeeeekes" that hummed throughout the building.

"I thought we played a good team game," said Weekes. "Our guys did a good job, for the most part, on even (strength) situations in terms of forcing their guys to shoot from the wing and eliminating the middle. Turning around in 24 hours and having to play on home ice is a big challenge. I have to credit our guys on how they played today."

Defenseman Michal Rozsival scored in the first period, and center Michael Nylander tallied the eventual game-winner for the Rangers in the third period, but the man of the hour was Weekes, whose performance led the Blueshirts to their third consecutive victory.

Coming on the heels of a 3-1 win at Ottawa on Saturday, the Rangers' performance on Sunday was another defensive clinic. Through their last seven periods, dating back to the third-period comeback against Pittsburgh on Thursday, the Blueshirts have allowed only two goals.

The three consecutive wins match the Rangers' longest streak of the season. Heading into a three-game road swing that begins against a struggling Philadelphia team, the Rangers could be sole possession in first place even before they return to The Garden to face New Jersey in a divisional showdown next Sunday night.

""It is definitely important. It is confidence-building," Rozsival, the game's No. 3 star, said of the winning streak. "We have been playing great team hockey the last three games. Great goaltending by Henrik (Lundqvist) and Kevin (Weekes) and I think they are the main reason our team has picked it up and started playing like a championship team."

Weekes' performance against Florida was a great sign for the Blueshirts, who will need to get the most out of both goaltenders over the next two weeks, which include a run of seven games in 12 days. Between Henrik Lundqvist and Weekes, the Rangers have allowed just one goal in the past six periods. Rangers goaltenders have been the No. 1 star in each of the past three games.

"Show me one team that can win without a goaltender. There isn't one in the league," said Rangers captain Jaromir Jagr. "You can win some games but you can't win all of the time. There are a lot of great goalies. We have an advantage right now because they are both playing great.”"

After Weekes had helped preserve the Rangers' 1-0 lead through two periods, his teammates wasted little time in the third before making it a 2-0 game.

Nylander scored the eventual winning goal from the left faceoff circle, converting a pass from Martin Straka at 0:51. The second assist on the goal went to Rozsival, who began the play with a big rush out of the Rangers zone up to center ice.

With his second assist of the night, Straka moved into the NHL's top 10 scorers. Through 30 games, he has 37 points, putting him on pace to score 100 points this season and thereby break his career-high of 95. He is also well on pace to shatter his career high of 35 goals. Nylander's goal also gave him 37 points on the season, giving the Rangers three of the NHL's top 10 scorers.

The game's final goal, scored by Florida, was the only blemish on Weekes' evening. It came at 10:04 of the final period, when defenseman Mike Van Ryn took a drop pass from Jozef Stumpel in the slot and fired home a wrist shot to make it a one-goal game.

Shortly after that goal, Florida threatened to tie it, but Weekes slammed the door repeatedly with a series of brilliant saves. He stopped Rostislav Olesz on a 17-foot wrist shot at 13:14. Then, with five minutes to go in the game, he staged a netminding clinic, denying two labeled shots in a span of five seconds.

The first save came against Stephen Weiss at 15:00. Florida kept the pressure on in the Rangers zone, however, and Weekes was right there again to stop Nathan Horton at 15:05.

"We were pretty good in the first two periods, we weren't dominant, but it was not real fearful," said Rangers head coach Tom Renney, "In the third they (Florida) came hard and after they scored their goal, that much harder. Kevin (Weekes) had to make some very big saves for us. You have to show confidence, you have to have a presence and you have to look in control at all times whether its two shots or 22 shots in a period."

Weiss was clearly Weekes' main victim on Sunday, right up to his final scoring opportunity, which was turned aside with 1:27 remaining. Overall, Weiss fired five shots at Weekes. All five were quality chances, and all five were denied.

Weekes had started the game so that No. 1 netminder Lundqvist could get some rest in the wake of beating Ottawa on Saturday, and the Rangers' backup was sharp from the start. He had 10 saves in the first period, nine in the second, and a whopping 15 in the third.

"In the beginning of each month, we look at the schedule to determine our goaltender, always leaving yourself the latitude to make changes," said Renney of the decision to start Weekes on Sunday. "They don't necessary know what I have planed for them, I don't tell them far in advance. It's more important for them to focus on the next game."

Weekes did much of his best work in the middle period, when he kept the Rangers in the game to send them into the second intermission with a lead for the second straight night.

Leading 1-0 after the first period on the goal by Rozsival, the Rangers relied heavily on Weekes the rest of the way. In the second period, he denied Horton on a backhander from directly in front of the net at 7:41 and later stifled Weiss on a 17-foot wrister from the right faceoff circle His best stop of the period came against Weiss again on a 4-on-4 situation at 13:20. Weekes knocked down the hard, 23-foot wrister with his glove and covered it up before any Panthers could get to the rebound.

At the other end of the ice, the Rangers had to deal with another hot goaltender in Florida's Ed Belfour, who made 26 saves to earn No. 3 star honors. He finished the second period with eight stops, including his best save of the game on Straka's tip-in attempt of a cross-ice pass at 12:35.

In the game's opening 20 minutes, Jagr picked up his league-leading 30th assist of the season in style, helping the Rangers stake a 1-0 lead.

Jagr, who is also atop the NHL with 44 points, set up Rozsival with a cross-ice pass that Rozsival fired past Belfour at the 10:49 mark. The power-play goal, scored from the right faceoff circle, was also assisted by Straka, who ran his career-best points streak to 10 games.

Weekes also came up big in the first period, stopping all 10 Panthers shots. His best saves came against Florida's Chris Gratton at 12:24 and Weiss at 15:16.

The Blueshirts were 1-for-6 on the power play on Sunday, cashing in for the lone goal when Jagr got the puck at the top of the left faceoff circle and threaded a pass to Rozsival, who was moving into the right circle. Rozsival unleashed a 34-foot wrister from the right faceoff dot to beat Belfour, making his first start at MSG since a 4-2 win over the Blueshirts on Oct. 25.

"It was great passing," Rozsival said of the goal. "We moved the puck well in the zone. I think they (Florida) overplayed Jags and (Brendan Shanahan) Shanny too much and it opened up the hole in front of the zone and I was able to skate into it. It was a great play by Jags."

Jagr was happy to see Rozsival, a longtime teammate in both Pittsburgh and New York, score two points on Sunday.

"He has always had the potential," Jagr said of Rozsival. 'He has a great shot, he has skill and he is pretty quick. It was just about if any team would give him a chance to play. There are a lot of good players but if you don't give them a chance to play they cannot show they are good."

The Rangers also had the game's first power-play opportunity, when Florida defenseman Jay Bouwmeester went off for holding at 1:52. During the power play, the Blueshirts tested Belfour only once, when Karel Rachunek fired a long wrister. Four seconds after the penalty expired, Jagr was also stopped by Belfour.

Florida's first test of the Rangers' penalty-killing unit came at the 6:19 mark, when Darius Kasparaitis went off for holding. The Rangers stood up to the test of the Panthers' fourth-ranked power play, allowing only three shots at Weekes – none particularly threatening. Florida ended the night 0-for-3 with the man-advantage, as the Rangers continued their trend of limiting penalties, which had plagued them earlier in the season.

Weekes' start was his first since an overtime shootout loss on Dec. 1 at Buffalo and his first at MSG since Nov. 5. Weekes had also played two periods of the Rangers' home game against the Islanders last Sunday.

"I have always suggested to him that he is a starting goaltender in this league, and don't ever lose sight of that," said Renney of Weekes. "The fact of the matter is, the dynamic here (New York) is a little unique and in order for this team to win, we need to be a team. And Kevin is completely on side with that."