BY MICHAEL OBERNAUER
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

Saturday, January 17th 2009, 1:37 AM


Daniel/Getty

Henrik Lundqvist improves to 4-1 in January after turning away 32 shots Friday night.


Jonathan Daniel

Chris Drury celebrates his game-winner.
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Rangers' fathers hit road for sons
CHICAGO - A convoy of Ranger dads was in the United Center stands Friday night to watch their sons in action. The way the game went, maybe the referees' dads were in the stands, too.

In a game between the surging Rangers and the upstart, dynamic Blackhawks, zebras Dean Morton and Mike Hasenfratz took over the spotlight until Chris Drury stole it right back. Drury scored a pair of goals, including the game-winner on a power play 2:23 into overtime, to give the Rangers a grueling 3-2 victory over Chicago.

With the adrenaline still running in the visitors' dressing room and the dads filling the hallways outside with chants of "Let's Go Rangers!", Tom Renney agreed that these were the two hardest-fought points his team has earned this season - "and maybe so far the most satisfying," the coach added.

That's because the Rangers had to trudge through a cavalcade of minor penalties - 11 in all and, in many cases, with the emphasis on "minor" - which gave the Blackhawks a staggering five lengthy 5-on-3 opportunities. The Rangers held them to one power-play goal, and while it was a big one - Brent Seabrook's game-tying score with 4:29 left in regulation - it couldn't bury the Blueshirts.

"I've never seen that before in my life - let alone twice in a game, but six times, seven times, whatever it was? It was absurd. It was ridiculous," said Brandon Dubinsky, who scored the Rangers' second goal of the game off a brilliant play by Lauri Korpikoski. "Kudos to our boys for hanging in there and finding a way to get the job done."

Asked if he'd ever seen so many 5-on-3s before, Renney said: "Not at the pro level. Junior, but not at the pro level. This was ... interesting."

With Henrik Lundqvist (32saves) once again superb behind them, the Rangers killed off a full two minutes of 5-on-3 to end the first, then three more in the second when Hasenfratz and Morton called four minors to put the Rangers shorthanded for a span of 5:45.

"Sure, there was a consistency there - they were calling everything under the bloody sun," Renney said. "I don't know what half the calls were."

The Rangers' second-ranked penalty kill held the Hawks' second-ranked power play to 1-for-11 on the night. Drury's pair made the Rangers 2-for-6. His first came 6:24 into the second period when he one-timed Michal Rozsival's pass to match Jonathan Toews' redirection goal at 15:28 of the first.

Dubinsky finished off Korpikoski's gem - he shed two players at the Chicago line, froze everyone with a fake shot and set up Dubinsky with a can't-miss goal - with 12:02 to play in regulation. And after Seabrook sent the game to OT, Drury scored his second of the game, this time with Andrew Ladd in the box, redirecting Wade Redden's pass past Nikolai Khabibulin (19 saves).

Drury was a workhorse last night: his winner was his fifth goal in six games and his 15th of the season, and of his 19:52 of ice time, 6:15 of it was to kill penalties. He won only nine of 21 faceoffs, but the biggest one of all was the offensive-zone draw that set up his own game-winner.

"We knew we're right with this team, we knew we could win, and we knew as the game went along and the calls evolved as they did, composure was going to be important for us," Renney said. "There was a real determined approach tonight from the bench out. It almost felt as though we were destined to win because of the composure we showed."