NEW YORK – For forty-one minutes, the New Jersey Devils had hope. Then as they have done all season the New York Rangers ripped it away from their opponents.
For just over two periods Monday night, the Devils dominated the match with their cross-river rivals. The first period featured New Jersey out-skating and out-working a Ranger squad that only 48 hours earlier had been through a game seven with the Washington Capitals.
The second period was skated by a fast Devils side and a slow, sloppy Ranger team. The expectation was that the first goal, almost certainly to be scored by the Devils, would prove to be the game winner. Not many Ranger fans would or could argue that sentiment.
There were a few bright spots for the Rangers in the first forty minutes. Notably Ryan McDonagh chased down two Devils breakaways. First, the 22-year old chased down Ilya Kovalchuk who had a clear shot on goalie Henrik Lundqvist, only to have the puck poked off his stick near the top of the crease.
Then McDonagh eliminated Zach Parise’s attempt to put the Devils on the board, also in the first period.
Tired or not, the Rangers held to their defensive scheme if not their offensive scheme. For the game they blocked 25 Devils shots and allowed only 21 to get through to Lundqvist.
Asked if his team was frustrated by all of the blocked shots New Jersey head coach Peter DeBoer said that was not the case.
“No. I mean, you can’t get frustrated by something you expect. We know that’s what they do. And you’ve got to find a way around it. We still generated enough offensive opportunities to score some goals tonight,” DeBoer said.
DeBoer was not disappointed in his team’s effort for the night.
“I thought we played a real good hockey game. We’ve been off a week. I thought through 40 minutes – we could have been up in the game. So give them credit for finding a way in the third period,” DeBoer said. “But that was a closer game than the score indicated.”
The problem was the final twenty minutes of the game.
Fifty-three seconds into the third period the Rangers reached into the New Jersey bench and wrenched back the hope they had given.
New York rookie Chris Kreider chased the puck down into the New Jersey zone along the far boards, protected the puck with his body and spotted Dan Girardi coming off the bench to the right point. Kreider flipped a pass to Girardi who one-timed from the point and beat Martin Brodeur through a screen for a 1-0 lead for New York.
As fatigued as the Rangers may have looked through the first two periods is how energized they were after the Girardi goal.
With the defensive scheme of blocking shots in place, New York clamped down on the Devils and allowed only four shots on goal in the final stanza.
For Rangers head coach John Tortorella, the methodology is simple.
“We just kept on playing. We stayed with it,” Tortorella said after the game referring to his club’s game plan and defensive play.
Tortorella was unwilling to single any one player out in the game but was enthusiastic in his remarks for McDonagh.
“He played very well tonight. I’m not going to single out him. I mean, it’s our whole team. But his skating ability certainly showed there and made a couple of big plays,” Tortorella explained.
Tortorella also was positive in his comments for his defensive corps in game one.
“It’s important. Going into tonight, we have a couple of guys that are right there, as far as top defensemen, scoring and also defending,” Tortorella said. “And these are tight checking games. To get some offense, some of your best defensemen defensively and the offense, it’s important. And Dan (Girardi) has made some really big plays. Not just getting on the scoreboard, but big plays offensively right on through the playoffs here.”
Of the messy second period, Tortorella was succinct in his appraisal.
“We turned it over and we got sloppy. I thought we had chances to get it out. We didn’t. And teams that are playing this time of year are going to try to capitalize,” Tortorella said. “So some of it was them. Some of it was us, as far as we had two times it was right by the blue line, we don’t get it out, and we’re fortunate we don’t get scarred there.”
But for the Rangers this season and playoffs it has been all about conditioning.
“We’ve been in these games all playoffs, with some of the experiences we’ve gone through. I have a tremendous amount of confidence in our conditioning, and, more importantly, in our mental makeup, as far as handling the situations,” Tortorella related. “And I looked at our third period in Game 7. I thought it was probably one of our best periods, eliminate Washington, and I thought tonight’s third period was a really good one also.”
Kreider put his legs to work later in the period when took a pass from Artem Anisimov near the blue line of the Devils and wristed the puck past Brodeur for the 2-0 lead.
Anisimov capped the scoring with an empty-netter to make the final score 3-0.
As for his team being a tired hockey club, Tortorella was defiant.
“I don’t know where you guys (media) get all this stuff being tired. If we’re tired this time of the year, there’s something the matter. We still have a month to play. You might as well not even ask me questions about being tired. We’re not a tired hockey club. We are ready to play. So it seems like it’s a lot of questions about that. You guys get the figures of the seven games and you don’t win a Stanley Cup and all that… this club will be ready to play.”
Game two of this Eastern Conference Finals series is Wednesday night in Madison Square Garden.
Contact LM.Davis@prohockeynews.com
