newjerseydevils.com – The Devils head into Madison Square Garden tonight looking to end a four-game winless streak when they face the New York Rangers (7 p.m., VERSUS, WFAN 660 AM).

New Jersey held a 1-0 lead late in Saturday's meeting with Carolina at Prudential Center. But rather than extend their franchise-record home winning streak to 12 games, the Devils surrendered two goals in the final 6:55 of regulation and came up empty in a 2-1 loss.

Patrik Elias scored his 31st of the season for the Devils (47-24-4), who matched a season high with their fourth-straight defeat. Jersey's Team dropped four in a row back in November, not long after Martin Brodeur went down with an elbow injury.

On Saturday, Brodeur faced a career-high 48 shots for the second time this season, and responded with a career-high 46 saves. The Devils fell to 1-4-1 since winning eight of Brodeur's first nine games back from injury.

Both of Brodeur's last two losses have come by a goal. Chicago extended the Devlis' recent road troubles with a 3-2 overtime win Friday.

"It's got to be a learning experience," said head coach Brent Sutter, whose team is one point behind Washington for second in the East. "It's playoff hockey now. You're going to get into these one-goal games and you've got to do the detail work and the little things well."

Brodeur is 1-5-3 in his past nine regular-season starts against the Rangers despite a 2.07 goals-against average in that span, and he allowed 16 goals in last season's playoff series.

Like the Devils, the Rangers (39-28-9) dropped a pair of one-goal games on their two-game road trip and face a tough slate after tonight's contest with road games in Carolina and Boston.

The Rangers rallied to tie Saturday's game in Pittsburgh at end of the first and second periods, but allowed Sidney Crosby to tally the winning score with 10:04 remaining in a 4-3 defeat.

"Certainly today we showed off our character battling from two-goal and one-goal deficits," said Rangers forward Nik Antropov, who has five goals and two assists in his last eight games. "It was so close to tying this game up at the end of the game. We did a lot of good things, and we're going to build on it."

After dropping its first two meetings with New York this season, New Jersey has won three straight and broke a five-game skid at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 27 with a 4-2 win.

with wire services