EAST RUTHERFORD (New Jersey), Nov 19: Patrick Roy recorded his third straight shutout and defenseman Rob Blake scored both goals to lead the Colorado Avalanche to a 2-0 blanking of the slumping New Jersey Devils Sunday.

In a Stanley Cup Finals rematch, Roy made 33 saves to extend his shutout streak to a career-best 183 minutes, 53 seconds. His previous best was 168:47 in February of 1990 as a member of the Montreal Canadiens.

He has turned aside all 90 shots in the last three games.

Roy has been having lots of fun recently. This was his league-leading fourth shutout of the season and the 56th of his career, putting him one behind Dominik Hasek for second among active goaltenders.

It also lowered his goals-against average to 1.76.

The last time Roy was at the Continental Airlines Arena, he blanked New Jersey 4-0 in Game Six of the Stanley Cup Finals. The Avalanche won Game Seven at home as Roy claimed his fourth championship.

Martin Brodeur stopped 19 shots for the Devils, who have lost four straight, are winless in five games (0-4-1) and are last in the Atlantic Division.

In New York, Eric Lindros got his first hat trick in nearly two years and the 300th goal of his career as the Rangers pulled away for their seventh win in eight games, 6-2 over the reeling Atlanta Thrashers.

The Rangers’ top line of Lindros, Theo Fleury and Mike York combined for three goals and eight assists and has 39 points in the last eight games.

New York has picked up 15 of a possible 16 points during that stretch and sits atop the Atlantic Division at 13-7-1-1.

It was an emotional week for Lindros, starting Wednesday with a 4-2 victory over Philadelphia in which he scored a goal against the team he left with bitter feelings after quarrels with management and a series of concussions.

After Saturday’s 1-0 overtime loss at Pittsburgh, he bounced back with his first three-goal game since December 9, 1999.

Pascal Rheaume had a power-play goal and an assist for Atlanta, whose winless streak reached 10 games (0-9-1).

In St Paul, Ziggy Palffy scored in the second period and set up Steve Heinze’s equaliser in the third as the Los Angeles Kings rallied from a two-goal deficit for a 2-2 tie with the Minnesota Wild.

Since returning from back spasms, Palffy has two goals and four assists in four games.

Jamie Storr stopped 16 shots, including all 15 he faced after the first period, as Los Angeles moved to 0-1-1-0 on a four-game road trip.

Sergei Zholtok and Marian Gaborik scored power-play goals in the first period for the Wild, who have just two wins in the last eight games (2-5-1).

Sunday’s results (home team in CAPS):

Colorado 2 NEW JERSEY 0

Los Angeles 2 MINNESOTA 2

NY RANGERS 6 Atlanta 2

—Reuters