Lundqvist made 31 saves, many of the highlight-reel variety, on the road Tuesday night as the Rangers finished off their season series with the Devils with a 1-2-1 record. New Jersey's Cory Schneider made 17 saves in backstopping the victory which snapped a three-game losing skid for the Devils.
Already without the injured Ryan McDonagh and Rick Nash, the Rangers also had to play without defenseman Marc Staal on Tuesday. He missed the game after tweaking something in his lower body, according to head coach Alain Vigneault.
After a good start and a fairly evenly played first period, the Rangers were outworked and outplayed in all phases of the game over the middle 20 minutes and were lucky to be trailing by only one goal, 3-2.
New Jersey outshot New York 17-5 in the second period, turning a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead. The Rangers were pinned for long stretches in their own end of the ice, made a slew of turnovers in the iddle of the ice, and forced Lundqvist to face a plethora of Grade A scoring chances, including several breakaways.
If not for the brilliance of their goaltender, the Rangers should have faced a much steeper deficit by time the buzzer sounded putting a merciful end to the middle stanza at the Prudential Center. It started just 11 seconds into the second period when Lundqvist made a huge glove save to rob Adam Henrique after he had broken in behind the Rangers defense, continued seven minutes later when he did the splits to somehow deny Kyle Palmieri who had streaked in untouched from right wing. and seemed to hit a crescendo at 9:20 when he scrambled to make three saves in one wild sequence. Lundqvist put an exclamation point on his second period heroics when he robbed former teammate John Moore on another breakaway at 14:10.
Still the Devils were able to manage to score twice in the period against Lundqvist. Palmieri's power play one-timer tied the score, 2-2, at 10:28; and former Blueshirt Lee Stempniak gave New Jersey a 3-2 lead at 18:06 when he sniped a one-timer from the left circle after a long prolonged shift in the Rangers end of the ice.
As if things were not bad enough for New York, J.T. Miller received a match penalty with one second remaining in the period when he fought New Jersey's Sergey Kalinin and cut him with a punch thrown by his taped right hand. Not only did the Rangers lose one of their best forwards, but they were forced into a five-minute penalty kill to start the third period.
However the Rangers allowed only shot on goal while killing off that major penalty, and, in fact, had the best scoring chance during those five minutes when rookie defenseman Brady Skjei--recalled from Hartford earlier in the day--nearly scored his first NHL goal, instead chipping the rebound of a Jesper Fast shorthanded shot just over the crossbar.
Things had seemed much brighter for the visitors earlier in the night when the Rangers climbed out of a 1-0 hole by scoring twice in a 45-second span midway through the first period. Kevin Hayes buried the rebound of a Viktor Stalberg shot at 8:17 to offset a game-opening goal scored on a deflection by New Jersey's Tyler Kennedy. The goal was the 11th this season for Hayes and gave him seven points in his last seven games (4-3-7).
Then at 9:02 Dominic Moore redirected a slick feed from Keith Yandle past Schneider for his sixth of the season. Rookie Marek Hrivik, playing in his second NHL game after being called up from Hartford on Sunday, picked up his first NHL point with the secondary assist on Moore's go-ahead goal.
There were a few other real good scoring chances for New York, including a pair of Derek Stepan shots which found iron instead of the back of the net, but those two goals in 45 seconds were it for the Rangers. Schneider's best stops were made on separate golden chances late in the second for Miller and Fast.
Kalinin put the Devils up 4-2 by scoring on a clean breakaway with 2:44 to play in regulation.
The Rangers continue their three-game road trip Thursday night when they face off with the Blues in St. Louis.
Jim CernyBlueshirtsUnited.com
FINAL STATS
NY RANGERS 2 NJ DEVILS 3
SOG: NYR 19 NJD 36
Scoring Summary
1st Period
04:47 NJD Tyler Kennedy (2) Tip-in - ASST: Damon Severson (13), Sergey Kalinin (5) 1 - 0 NJD
08:17 NYR Kevin Hayes (11) Snap shot - ASST: Viktor Stalberg (8) 1 - 1 Tie
09:02 NYR Dominic Moore (6) Snap shot - ASST: Keith Yandle (30), Marek Hrivik (1) 2 - 1 NYR
2nd Period
10:28 NJD PPG - Kyle Palmieri (23) Snap shot - ASST: Joseph Blandisi (8), Jacob Josefson (9) 2 - 2 Tie
18:06 NJD Lee Stempniak (16) Snap shot - ASST: Joseph Blandisi (9), Adam Larsson (12) 3 - 2 NJD
3rd Period
17:16 NJD Sergey Kalinin (6) Snap shot - ASST: Andy Greene (7), Adam Henrique (19) 4 - 2 NJD
19:31 NJD EN - Adam Larsson (3) Snap shot - ASST: NONE 5 - 2 NJD
Penalty Summary
1st Period
NONE
2nd Period
06:31 NYR Dylan McIlrath Roughing - 2 min against Joseph Blandisi
06:31 NJD Joseph Blandisi Holding the stick - 2 min against Dylan McIlrath
09:37 NYR Mats Zuccarello Tripping - 2 min against Jacob Josefson
13:14 NJD Joseph Blandisi Embellishment - 2 min against Dylan McIlrath
13:14 NYR Dylan McIlrath Interference - 2 min against Joseph Blandisi
19:59 NYR J.T. Miller served by Oscar Lindberg Fighting (maj) - 5 min against Sergey Kalinin
19:59 NJD Sergey Kalinin Fighting (maj) - 5 min against J.T. Miller
19:59 NYR J.T. Miller Match penalty - 10 min against Sergey Kalinin
3rd Period
05:40 NYR Derick Brassard Tripping - 2 min against Stephen Gionta
Team Stats
Category NYR NJD
Power Plays 0/0 1/3
Hits 18 22
Faceoff Wins 26 33
Giveaways 4 5
Takeaways 3 6
Blocked Shots 6 14
Penalty Minutes 23 9
NEXT GAME
NEW YORK RANGERS @ ST LOUIS BLUES THURSDAY 2/25 8:00 PM
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