Rick Nash's two-goal night powers New York Rangers past Calgary Flames 5-2

CALGARY - Rick Nash scored his 19th and 20th goals of the season to lead the New York Rangers to a 5-2 victory over the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night.

Chris Kreider, Derek Stepan, and Carl Hagelin into an empty net also scored for New York (15-10-4). The Rangers won all three games in their swing through Western Canada. They'll wrap up a stretch of four-straight games on the road on Saturday in Carolina.

Jiri Hudler and Curtis Glencross — with just 1:15 left in the game — scored for Calgary (17-14-2). After a terrific start to the season, the Flames have lost six straight games in regulation for the first time since Jan. 13-25, 2010. Next up is a home date with Dallas on Friday.

Nash's 11-game point streak (eight goals, six assists) is a career best and also ties him with Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin for the longest point streak in the NHL this season.

Nash opened the scoring at 11:22 of the first period. when he broke in alone from off the right wing and beat Karri Ramo on a backhand-to-forehand move.

Three minutes into the second period and while killing a penalty, Nash made it 3-0 when he was set up by Stepan on a two-on-one. His third short-handed goal moves him into a tie for second in the NHL behind Los Angeles's Tyler Toffoli (4).

A key sequence in the game came in the final minute of the first period.

Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist stopped two separate short-handed breakaways. Lance Bouma on a rare four-on-two rush and Josh Jooris on a dangerous two-on-one were both stopped by Lundqvist.

With time running out in the period, Mats Zucarello raced the puck up the ice and fired a long slapshot that Ramo handled easily. But with the puck lying at his feet, Ramo was expecting Kris Russell to clear it away and instead the Flames defenceman shoved it back towards Ramo and before the Flames goalie could cover it, Kreider stuck his stick in and knocked the puck into the net.

The stunning goal at 19:52 resulted in a frustrated Ramo gesturing with his trapper in the direction of Russell and just like that, the Saddledome that was buzzing over the previous scoring chances, fell silent.

Down 3-0, the Flames nearly got on the scoreboard when Markus Granlund ripped a puck off the crossbar that fooled the goal judge, who turned on the red light. However, play rightfully continued and at the other end, Stepan made it 4-0 at 11:15 on a wrap-around.

That spelled the end of the night for Ramo, who was pulled by coach Bob Hartley after surrendering four goals on 13 shots.

It was the second consecutive tough start for the 28-year-old Finn. In his previous start, he gave up four goals on 19 shots in Buffalo.

Hudler scored the Flames first goal at 11:56 of the second period, deflecting in Mark Giordano's point shot.

Oddly, Calgary's cold streak has coincided with the return to health of three regular forwards, who had spent six weeks on injured reserve.

Matt Stajan returned to the line-up on Dec. 6 in what was the first of the six losses. Mason Raymond returned the next game and Joe Colborne returned the game after that.

The Flames offence has also dried up, scoring only 10 times during the skid. This comes despite Calgary holding the edge in shots in five of the six games including Tuesday.

Lundqvist finished with 29 saves to improve to 13-7-3. He's given up a total of only two goals in his last three starts.

Ramo was charged with the loss to fall to 8-5-1. Hiller was perfect on nine shots in relief.

Notes: C Derick Brassard (mumps) missed his second straight game for New York... Also not dressed was D John Moore. D Matt Hunwick was back in the Rangers line-up after sitting out the last three games. ... Flames scratches included LW Brandon Bollig, who has sat out four of the last six games... Recent call-up D Corey Potter also did not play. The veteran has yet to make his Flames debut... The Rangers improve to 96-1-1 record in their last 98 regular season games when scoring at least four goals. That dates back to Nov. 14, 2010.