NEWARK, NJ – The New York Rangers beat the New Jersey Devils 3-0 to take a two-games-to-one lead in their conference finals. Many are still trying to figure out how.
Maybe it was the long six-mile ride from New York to New Jersey, but for the first half of the game, the New York Rangers were lethargic. They had nothing that even closely resembled a fore-check until an angry Ranger’s Head Coach John Tortorella called a timeout and read the riot act to his players.
“If we don’t start to fore-check, we have no chance,” Tortorella said during an in-game interview at the bench.
The Rangers played better after the time out and had a great short-handed opportunity to break a 0-0 tie near the end of the second period, but failed to convert a three-on-one.
The New Jersey Devils, on the other hand, displayed a relentless fore-check for two periods, resulting in several good scoring chances with no success. In the second period alone, Ilya Kovalchuk had three shots on goal and three prime scoring opportunities. The Devils outshot the Rangers 26-14 in periods one and two, but couldn’t convert.
Whatever Tortorella told his team over the second intermission worked. The Rangers came out with a vengeance at the start of the third period, hitting the post on a Brad Richards shot and nearly putting the rebound in the net just over a minute into the period.
Under constant pressure, the Devils had to ice the puck back-to-back, resulting in a hooking penalty by a tired Bryce Salvador. The Rangers took advantage, scoring a power play goal by Dan Girardi at 3:19 to take a 1-0 lead.
Two minutes later, the Rangers struck again when Chris Kreider beat Martin Brodeur, on a tip in of a Ryan McDonagh shot from the point extending the lead to 2-0.
The teams traded shots and opportunities through the middle of the third period, skating over five minutes without a whistle during the middle of the period. The Rangers tried to let the Devils back into the game by putting them on the power play twice, but the only thing the Devils hit was the post. The Devils were 0-4 on the power play.
New Jersey pulled Brodeur with 2:30 left in regulation, but the Rangers scored an empty net goal seconds later, resulting in a mass evacuation of the Prudential Center.
Henrik Lundqvist stopped all 36 shots for his second 3-0 win of this series.
“I’m very focused and playing really well right now,” Lundqvist said. “They tried to put the puck out front a lot, but we were able to keep it out of the net.”
Game four will be played at the Prudential Center at 8PM EDT Monday.
Contact the writer at: mitch.cooper@prohockeynews.com
