Devils Scratch and Claw to Victory Over Rangers

There was a playoff-like atmosphere at Prudential Center tonight. Sure the building is always amped up when the Devils and Rangers get it on, but it has been a long time since this much has been at stake in the Hudson River Rivalry.

With only two points separating the two teams in the Metropolitan Division standings, a lot was on the line and the fans – and players – knew it. In addition to the tight Metro Division standings, this was the first time in more than four years that both teams have been in a playoff position this late in the season and that just added to the tension in the building. But in the end, the Devils prevailed 4-3 in a shootout to defeat New York and come away with the full two points in a real hard fought victory.

In roster news, the Devils traded off one Swede for another in terms of injuries. They got Marcus Johansson back from injured reserve, and he would play tonight. However, Jesper Bratt would not. He was injured blocking a shot against the Ducks and will be day-to-day. Kyle Palmieri, who returned a few nights ago, would play on the top line with Taylor Hall and Nico Hischier. Jimmy Hayes, Ben Lovejoy and Dalton Prout were the Devils’ healthy scratches for the night.

In one other note, Brian Gibbons was playing in his 100th NHL game tonight.

The goaltending matchup was a marquee one and it did not disappoint. Henrik Lundqvist went for New York and made 45 saves on a whopping 48 Devils shots. He also made two saves in the shootout. He really kept the Rangers in a game that they had no business being in at times. Not to be outdone, but on a smaller scale, Cory Schneider went for the Devils. He stopped 25 of 28 shots and stopped three shots in the shootout. This was a real goalie duel and a game that both goalies can be proud of. As mentioned, Lundqvist stood out for the Rangers, standing on his head for them and keeping the Devils at bay.

The Devils seemed to be behind the eight ball all night long, but actually notched the first goal of the contest. John Moore, who was playing in his 400th NHL game tonight against a former team of his, took a pass from Nico Hischier, who had gathered the puck from Hall taking a hit along the half wall. Moore skated into the slot and shot high over Lundqvist’s glove hand to give the Devils the 1-0 lead at just the 7:22 mark of the first period. Kyle Palmieri had the secondary assist on the goal.

But the Rangers would respond quickly. Jimmy Vesey scored from Paul Carey and David Desharnais at 9:55 off a mad scramble in front of Cory to tie things up at one. New York would grab the lead before the period was out, with Nick Holden scoring at 11:59 from Chris Kreider and Pavel Buchnevich. His goal came on a rebound and gave the Rangers the 2-1 lead going into the second period.

But a funny thing all night was that the Devils would just not go away. After Will Butcher broke up a 2-on-1 early in the second and Cory made a nice stop midway through the period on a New Jersey giveaway in front of his net, a pivotal moment in the game occurred. Nico Hischier had seemingly had scored to tie things up. The goal was immediately waved off on the ice due to Palmieri being called for cross-checking Holden in front of the Devils’ net. The Devils seemed to be in a hole for the first time all night, but Blake Coleman would see that things would move in their direction.

He intercepted a soft pass by Kevin Shattenkirk and skated up ice, shooting from the far faceoff dot. He beat Lundqvist gloveside to tie things up at two. It was Coleman’s first career shorthanded goal and the team’s sixth shorty of the season so far. That goal came at 16:24 of the second period and Steven Santini had the lone assist on it.

There was drama before the period ended too. First, Michael Grabner took a slashing call on Palmieri that can only be described as a good penalty. Palmieri was wide open in front of an empty net and would have scored to give New Jersey the lead had Grabner not taken the infraction. That came at 17:38 of the second and the Devils seemed to be in business. However, at the 18:33 mark, Hall took a holding penalty against Mika Zibanejad to not only event things up, but to give the Rangers a short power play going into the third period. They would not score on the fresh ice and in fact, went 0-for-3 on the night with the man advantage with no shots on goal. The Devils ended the night 1-for-4 with six shots on goal. The power play was merely a microcosm of the night for these two teams.

Despite the shot disparity, however, the Rangers would again take the lead early in the third period when Kevin Hayes, Jimmy’s brother, scored at 1:48 from Brendan Smith and Mats Zuccarello to make it 3-2. The Devils’ collective backs were to the wall again.

This time, the hero was Brian Boyle. On the power play after Kreider had gone off for elbowing, Boyle stationed himself in the slot and took a pass from Hall out of the far corner. Boyle spun around and fired a backhander that beat Lundqvist just over the glove, tying things up at three. The goal came at 11:54 of the third and Palmieri had the secondary assist, giving him two points on the night.

And that was it for the scoring. Once regulation ended and the game was headed for overtime, the fans of both teams were on pins and needles. The OT saw lots of back-and-forth action until the 3:52 mark when Brady Skjei broke in on Schneider and Hall was called for a hooking penalty that, again, he almost had to take or give up a clear scoring chance. The remainder of OT would be played 4-on-3 and all seemed lost for the Devils faithful.

But New Jersey killed it off and we were now headed to a shootout. Hall shot first for the Devils and Lundqvist made the save. Schneider stopped Zuccarello and then Palmieri scored for the Devils. A stop would win it for the Devils, but Zibanejad found the back of the net behind Cory to even things up. The next round saw Drew Stafford stopped by Lundqvist and Vesey stopped by Cory. Boyle was up and connected on what would be the game winner. The game was on Shattenkirk’s stick and Cory stopped him with a right pad save to end it. The Devils had pulled out the two points against all odds.

In the end, Palmieri was named the game’s third star while Coleman was the second and Boyle, the former Ranger-turned-Devil the game’s number one star. Stats-wise, Sami Vatanen led all Devils’ skaters with 24:11 total ice time. He also tied in the shots on goal lead with six along with Palmieri. Hall, Stafford, Stefan Noesen, and Santini all had two hits apiece to tie for the lead in that category. As for blocks, Andy Greene and Santini each had four to lead the Devils. The Devils won 43-percent of the game’s faceoffs.

The story of the game, however, was New Jersey outshooting the Blueshirts by twenty shots. A really amazing statistic and showed that the Devils earned the victory as they were relentless on the puck all night, clogging up passing lanes and gobbling up the puck.

The Devils now take the lead in the season series with the Rangers, having split the two at Madison Square Garden earlier this season. They have one more meeting later on in the year at the Prudential Center that will hopefully be even more important.

Next up for the Devils, Saturday night, they faceoff with the Chicago Blackhawks at The Rock. It may not be the same intense rivalry atmosphere as tonight, but it will be an important game against a Western Conference foe who has been playing better of late and has the chance to be a statement game for the Devils, as they can sweep the season series from Chicago.

Devils Fall in Regulation for Second Straight Game

With the Devils’ rough loss to Columbus last night, they were looking to right the ship against their Hudson River rivals as they traveled to the Garden on a snowy night in the New Jersey/New York area. Usually, a rivalry game would cure exactly what ails a team, but there are two sides to a rivalry. The Rangers were also coming off of a loss last night (to the Washington Capitals) and were also looking to right their ship. For Devils fans, things would not go quite as planned. The Rangers came away with the 5-2 win on a Saturday night in New York City.

The uphill battle would be there for the Devils to begin with. The Rangers have won nine of their last ten on Garden ice. And speaking of the Garden’s ice, it was not very good tonight, as the puck was bouncing everywhere. Apparently, according to Ken Daneyko, there was a college basketball game earlier this afternoon and that negatively affected the ice. But both teams have to play on the surface, no matter how bad it is, so that is not an excuse for New Jersey.

One milestone that I neglected to mention from last night’s game, as Taylor Hall played in his 100th game as a New Jersey Devil last evening versus the Blue Jackets. Tonight was his 101st. Also, with last night’s loss and the Capitals’ win over the Rangers, both Columbus and Washington leapfrogged the Devils, moving them into third place in the Metropolitan Division coming into tonight’s game. They remained there after tonight’s loss since Washington did not play, the Penguins and Islanders both lost and only the Jackets won (but they were already in first place so it really did not matter, they just gained a point). The Rangers, however, continue to climb back into the race after a rough start to their season with this win.

Roster-wise, Drew Stafford was out in favor of Pavel Zacha (who ended up playing a decent game after sitting for a few games – coach John Hynes wanted to see more consistency in his competitiveness) and Dalton Prout and Steven Santini sat on defense. Ben Lovejoy slotted back in on defense.

Goaltending saw the Devils go to Keith Kinkaid for the second half of a back-to-back. He made 34 saves on 39 Ranger shots. New York went right back to Henrik Lundqvist in the second half of their back-to-back. Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said he was starting simply because it was a “big game.” He made 26 saves on 28 Devils shots.

And Lundqvist would get some support too. The Rangers broke the seal on the game just 6:14 into the game when Jimmy Vesey scored from Paul Carey and Boo Nieves to make it 1-0. Kinkaid would follow up that goal with a nice save on Rick Nash on a breakaway.

The second period began with a bit of a scare when Andy Greene was hit in the ear with a puck. He was okay and would not miss a shift, however. There was also an incident that saw Miles Wood bump Lundqvist on a breakaway only for Kevin Shattenkirk to take exception. The two got into a shoving and wrestling match and Wood would eventually go off with a double minor for roughing while Shattenkirk got just two minutes (also for roughing). The Rangers would not score on that power play and ended up 0-for-3 on the night – the same as the Devils. New York had five power play shots while New Jersey had four.

The Devils had two nice chances in the middle of the second period, first when a Brian Gibbons shot beat Lundqvist and trickled slowly towards the goal line, seemingly on its way to tying things. However, Mats Zuccarello was “johnny on the spot” for the Rangers and cleared the puck. Next, Blake Coleman would nick the post and send the puck just wide, denying the Devils another chance at tying things at one. Immediately following that chance, however, the Rangers’ Jesper Fast capitalized and made it 2-0 at 9:42 when he scored from Nash.

It would take until the 13:45 mark of the second, but the Devils would finally get on the board and cut the New York lead in half when Damon Severson scored his fourth of the year to make it 2-1. It came when Brian Boyle dug the puck out of near corner. It squibbed out to Coleman, who gave to Stefan Noesen. Noesen went back to the far point to Severson, who let loose a shot that scorched by Lundqvist to put the Devils on the board.

Unfortunately for the Devils, things would begin to unravel from there and it began with a puck that clanged off of the post. The Rangers were killing off a delay of game penalty when Marcus Johansson hit the post in the New York end. Seconds later, just as the Devils power play had ended, Zuccarello stole the puck in the New Jersey zone from Severson, skated right in and roofed it by Kinkaid to make it 3-1 Rangers. That goal was unassisted at 16:03 of the second.

Zuccarello would strike again for his second of the game just 6:21 into the third period. He scored from JT Miller and Ryan McDonagh to make it 4-1.

The Devils would again answer back when Miles Wood scored 13 seconds after Zuccarello’s second goal to make it 4-2. That one came when the Rangers tried to wind the puck out of their zone and Zacha knocked it down. Will Butcher picked up the loose puck and gave back to Zacha at the top of the far faceoff circle. He threaded the needle to Wood, who was standing at the far side of Lundqvist’s goal cage. He slammed it home to cut the Ranger lead in half.

But a Devils comeback was not to be. At the 11:59 mark, Kevin Hayes scored from Nash and Fast to make it 5-2 and send the Rangers fans home happy. Time ticked down and the Devils were dealt their first back-to-back regulation losses of the season and their third regulation loss in four games.

Time on ice was led by Severson, who had 21:29; shots on goal was a five way tie between Nico Hischier, Zacha, Gibbons, Wood and Butcher, who each had three; and hits were led by Coleman with four. The Devils dominated in the faceoff circle for a change, winning 62-percent of the game’s faceoffs.

Next up, the Devils return home to Prudential Center on Tuesday to take on the Pacific Division-leading Los Angeles Kings. This will be another test against another good team to see if the Devils can get off of their slide. Due to prior obligations, I will be a little bit late getting this game up, as I have to watch a recording of it. Hopefully for Devils fans, however, this game will yield a W and get them two points back into the Metropolitan race.