In Newark, Vladimir Tarasenko scored in the first period to give the New York Rangers a 1-0 lead on Monday night for the Devils.
Tarasenko skated the puck into the zone on the right boards, got walled off, but the puck skittered to K’Andre Miller who returned the puck to Tarasenko who snapped home the goal from the between the circles.
It set the stage for the night as the Rangers grabbed a 5-1 win and a 1-0 series lead.
“We talked about managing the puck, not getting turnovers and giving them odd-man rushes, and I thought we skated hard,” New York coach Gerard Gallant said. “But the biggest thing for us is we forechecked well. We did a good job in their zone, and we didn’t spend as much time in our zone.”
Chris Kreider deflected a shot/pass from Adam Fox midway through the first for a 2-0 lead, the goal came off the power play.
“I’m just trying to move the puck to the right guys, and obviously it’s nice to contribute like that,” Fox said.
Igor Shesterkin made 27 saves in the win. He missed a shutout when Jack Hughes scored on a penalty shot in the third period to make the score 4-1 at the time.
“I think the difference was we got a couple looks on our power play and they didn’t,” Kreider said. “I’m sure they’ll go back and look at the film, try to dial some stuff up for their power play. For us, it’s going to be about trying to stay out of the box and continue to be solid 5-on-5.”
Ryan Lindgren scored with three minutes left in the middle frame to extend the Rangers lead to 3-0.
Lindgren scored from the left wing and deftly potted the puck past a sinking New Jersey goalie.
Kreider hit for his second power play goal of the game at 11:07 of the third for a 4-0 lead to the Ranges.
The Rangers were 2-for-3 on the power play.
Fox delivered the shot/pass for Kreider to tip in from down low.
“It speaks to his ability to perform at this time of the year,” Fox said of Kreider. “He’s played in some big games and he’s scored some big goals. It’s obviously a huge honor for him, especially the history of the team. That’s what he does, he puts the puck in the back of the net and has a knack around the crease.”
Game 2 is set for Newark on Thursday.
Fox had four assists in the win.
“I thought we were smart with the puck,” Fox said. “We capitalized on special teams, that’s a big part of it. They’re going to get their chances too, and we need some big saves when they do, and we got them.
“If we play like this, we’re going to have success.”
Filip Chytil completed the scoring with an empty-net strike from the left boards near the blue line for the 5-1 final.
New Jersey was scoreless in four power play chances.
“We’ve just got to put more pucks on the net (on the power play),” New Jersey captain Nico Hischier said. “They blocked a lot of shots (23), and I think Shesterkin made some huge saves. They could have gone in at some point, but we lost that game and now we look forward to the next game.”
Vitek Vanecek made 18 saves in the loss.
“We’ll chalk that one up as it’s not the way you wanted to start playoffs, but I think we’ve got a lot of young guys, a lot of jitters,” Devils defenseman Ryan Graves said. “So, definitely tough, but you learn from it and improve on it and find ways to kill momentum and try to tilt the ice the other direction.”
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