Hudson River Rivalry, Rangers top Devils
Photo via nhl.com
With only the Hudson River separating them, the New Jersey Devils and the New York Rangers make up one of the greatest rivalries of all time. The two Atlantic division teams met for the second time this season on March 19. The first meeting between the two started with the Devils taking an early lead in the first period and ending the game with a 3-1 win over the Blue Shirts. In this battle of the border, though, New York got the “W” after a back-and-forth 60 minutes.
This game, like most of the match-ups between these two teams, did not disappoint. The Rangers struck first with a shorthanded goal from Michael Del Zotto. Later in the first period, Travis Zajac tied it up with a power play goal, which led to a quick offensive flurry. Carl Hagelin scored at 16:50 to take the lead back for the Rangers, and 23 seconds later, Devils’ forward Anton Volchenkov took a slap shot to tie it at 2.
The second period was less offensive with only one goal: Rick Nash about halfway through the period to make it 3-2 Rangers. Nash’s goal held up to be the game-winner throughout a scoreless third period. This win put the Rangers ahead of the Devils for 8th place in the Eastern Conference. Now, there are four teams in the conference with 32 points.
Despite the Devil’s loss, there was one positive they can take away from the game. Their starting goalie, Martin Brodeur, dressed for the first time in twelve games. Since Brodeur’s injury, the Devils have gone 3-8-2 with Johan Hedberg as goalie. Compared to an 8-2-3 record with Brodeur, it is safe to say New Jersey is not the same team without their star net-minder. Fortunately for the Devils, Marty is expected to be back in net for this Thursday’s game against Carolina.
[…] Last Saturday’s game (the 16th), Jacques Caron was honored before the game for being the yin to Marty Broduer’s yang and I was lucky to have won really good (re: not where I usually sit) tickets. It meant I was close to the ice though and while I tend to always think Jagr bitches too much because he hates New Jersey in general, holy crap, the ice looked terrible. And because of the terrible ice, the game was terrible. If anyone else besides David “Clarkson!Down” Clarkson falls on the ice, you know it’s bad — and everyone was falling. They lost 1-2 against the Montreal Canadiens and it was pretty terrible. And then the next home game was the earlier mentioned Devils loss to the Rangers as seen on this blog in Hudson River Rivalry: Rangers Top Devils. […]