New York, NY (Sports Network) - Henrik Lundqvist stopped 14 shots for his seventh shutout of the season, as the New York Rangers dominated the Atlanta Thrashers, 4-0, in the first of a two-game set at Madison Square Garden.

Jaromir Jagr had a goal and two assists, while Fedor Tyutin added three assists for the Rangers, who had lost three of four coming into the contest.

"After the first period it was all about keeping my focus," said Lundqvist. "Sometimes when you think you own a game you start to lose focus and that's when things can go bad. All four lines looked really good tonight."

Kari Lehtonen made 35 saves for the Thrashers, who have dropped their last four games.

"I tried to make the saves, that's my job," said Lehtonen. "Today I came up short, what can I say. They pressured us hard tonight. We need to start winning and that's about it."

Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk was thrown out of the game with 36 seconds left in the first period as he left his feet on a boarding check on Michal Rozsival. Rozsival laid on the ice for a couple of minutes, but eventually got to his feet and finished the game. Kovalchuk was assessed a five-minute major for boarding and a 10-minute game misconduct.

"He hit him pretty hard," said Atlanta coach Don Waddell about Kovalchuk. "Obviously that was a big loss cause we didn't have too much going offensively tonight."

These teams will meet again at the Garden on Thursday.

The Rangers grabbed a 1-0 lead with 7:48 left in the first. A scramble in front of the net resulted in the puck popping out to the right slot, where Sean Avery grabbed it and rifled the puck into the net.

With 4:28 left in the first, New York took a 2-0 lead. Jagr had the puck at the top left circle and fired it to a skating Brandon Dubinsky at the right point. Dubinsky skated unopposed to the net, faked to the backhand and lifted the puck past Lehtonen.

The New York defense did a good job of shutting Atlanta down in the first period, limiting the team to four shots on net, the first of which did not reach Lundqvist until there was 3:13 left in the period.

The Rangers added a shorthanded goal in the second period to take a 3-0 lead. Thanks to a poor line change by Atlanta, Martin Straka picked up the puck in the neutral zone and skated into the Atlanta end unopposed. He skated across the goalmouth and lifted a backhander past Lehtonen at the 8:36 mark.

Lundqvist stopped all seven shots he faced in the middle stanza.

Just 4:03 into the third period, the Rangers extended their lead to 4-0. Scott Gomez had the puck at the deep left boards and sent it out front to Jagr, who used a backhander to beat Lehtonen for his 15th goal of the year.