March 26, 2010, New York Rangers-New Jersey Devils game story for Metro NY Newspaper
Published 11:01, March the 26th, 2010
Rangers rally, beat Devils
Rangers 4, Devils 3
In a season marked by confusion, Erik Christensen was convinced.
It was the shootout and the Rangers’ reclamation center was pleading his case with referees Brad Meier and Wes McCauley.
He had just skated in a let a wrist shot fly that went around Martin Brodeur, kissing the posts and crossbar. It was ruled no goal. Except…
“I was 90 percent sure that was…I saw it hit the twine. I was almost positive that it hit the twine,” Christensen said. A video review showed that the puck did cross the line.
Five minutes later, Christensen was a hero along with Henrik Lundqvist, who had kept his team in a game that they had to have.
For a group that has had their character questioned for most of the season, Thursday night’s 4-3 shootout win against the Devils in Newark may have been one that defines this group.
Combined with the Bruins’ 5-3 home loss to Tampa, the Rangers are three points behind the eight-seed Boston. Ninth-seed Atlanta has a one point lead over the Rangers due to their 2-1 OT loss to Toronto. The Rangers will be in Toronto Saturday for Hockey Night in Canada.
As the Rangers wake up this morning, they are very much alive for the playoffs. They are defiant in their belief that come April 12, they, and not Boston or Atlanta, will be preparing for a playoff series against Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals.
“We had a game last night against a team that was kind of flat and you wonder what’s going to happen the next night. You wonder if that false sense of being a good team (would creep up) again,” Jody Shelley said. “When you have guys like (Chris) Drury, (Ryan) Callahan and (Michal) Rozsival, there’s always a chance. You look at the other skilled guys like Erik Christensen; Dubi (Brandon Dubinsky) raised his game. When these guys raise their game like that, we have a chance. This team doesn’t give up.”
John Tortorella admitted after Wednesday night’s 5-0 home rout of the Islanders that this game was going to be a tougher challenge because “the (New) Jersey Devils are a better hockey club. They’re better defensively; they’re a better puck control team.”
Those factors were in full effect throughout the opening 20 minutes as the Devils led 1-0. The dominant first period that was highlighted by Ilya Kovalchuk’s 38th goal of the season and a vicious Andrew Peters overhand right that dropped Shelley at center ice.
“I thought we were fortunate to come out down by one goal. We tried to get back to our game play and grind away,” analyzed Tortorella.
Brandon Dubinsky’s power-play strike at 7:32 of the second period tied the game at one. The Rangers center received a pass from Michael Del Zotto at the half boards, walked to the left faceoff circle then ripped a laser that beat a screened Brodeur (31 saves).
Patrik Elias and Jamie Langenbrunner scored third period goals that put the Devils up 2-1 and 3-2. But Artem Anisimov (2-2) and Chris Drury (3-3) responded with tying goals. Drury’s goal came with 16.5 seconds left in the match.
Lundqvist made 38 saves.
http://www.metro.us/us/article/2010/03/26/17/0129-82/index.xml
posted by Denis P. Gorman at 5:10 PM
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