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Lundqvist, Prucha lead Rangers past Devils

Nov 4, 2007 - 3:16 AM By Larry Fleisher PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

NEW YORK (Ticker) -- The New Jersey Devils have enjoyed the goaltending edge in their meetings with the New York Rangers for some time. Now that the Rangers have Henrik Lundqvist and Martin Brodeur is getting older, they seem to be gaining some ground in that area.

Lundqvist made 28 saves and stopped all three shots he faced in the shootout and Petr Prucha had the only tally in the bonus format to lead the Rangers to a 2-1 victory over the Devils on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.

After the first two shooters failed to score, Prucha got the better of Brodeur with a nifty fake. Coming straight down the slot, Prucha faked a shot and got Brodeur to go down just slightly before lifting a shot over his shoulder for the only tally of the shootout.

"I know that I wasn't scoring much this season, but I feel good on the ice and I didn't lose my confidence at all," Prucha said. "I know what I wanted to do in the shootout, and I did it and it was in. I was just real happy that we won."

"To me, Petr is a scorer," Rangers coach Tom Renney said. "Certainly Petr is very comfortable in that circumstance, and he does know where the net is. His shot was just a terrific shot."

The Rangers might not have even been in position to win in the shootout if not for Lundqvist. He stopped Zach Parise, Brian Gionta and clinched New York's third straight victory by denying John Madden.

"It was tough," said Lundqvist, who is 13-8 lifetime in shootouts. "You never know. It's so close when you go to (a) shootout, and you definitely want to get the win."

In 1993-94, Brodeur's rookie season, the Rangers swept the six-game series, but over the next decade, the edge in net belonged to Brodeur. The three-time Vezina Trophy winner won 29 of the 51 meetings, but since Lundqvist has joined the Rangers in 2005, the tide has swung in favor of the Swede.

Lundqvist has two wins against the Devils this season and is 7-2-3 lifetime vs. New Jersey.

"The couple of games we've played against them (this year), he's obviously been their best player," Gionta said. "He just finds the puck. He finds a way for it to hit him and covers the net pretty well."

Lundqvist, who along with Calgary's Miikka Kiprusoff and San Jose's Evgeni Nabokov are the only goaltenders to appear in every game this season, has allowed two goals or less in 10 starts and entered Saturday with a 1.67 goals against average. One of those games was a 22-save shutout over the Devils on October 25.

Besides having their longest winning streak of the young season, the Rangers also reached the .500 mark (6-6-1). They have won four of five on their six-game homestand that ends Monday against the Philadelphia Flyers.

"You need the luck," Lundqvist said. "This week has been really good for us. We've had a couple of good bounces finally, and I think we deserve it after a couple of tough games."

They have done so primarily due to the play of Lundqvist, who has allowed just two goals in the four wins and surrendered just 21 overall while the Rangers wait for their offense to get going.

Brodeur finished with 28 saves, including a pad stop on Chris Drury's breakaway attempt in overtime. He remained two shy of 500 career victories, and his first chance at history could be Thursday against Philadelphia.

"I'm disappointed with the outcome," Brodeur said. "I thought we played a really good game on the road. It's unfortunate, but we'll take that point."

The Rangers supported Lundqvist early on as they scored the first goal just 6:01 into the game.

Former Devil Scott Gomez netted his third of the season on an assist from Prucha. But before Gomez's tally could be announced in the arena, Sergei Brylin tied it 33 seconds later.

Playing in his second game against Brodeur since signing as a free agent with the Rangers, Gomez stationed himself in front of his former teammate. When Prucha's shot was kicked out by Brodeur, Gomez used his backhand to put home the rebound.

"I thought it would be a lot different," Gomez said of scoring on Brodeur. "I hadn't scored in a while, I got the goal. It wasn't like, 'I got one by Marty.' Maybe later on in life, I'll always know I got one by him. But that comes secondary."

Brylin, who was another longtime teammate of Gomez, tied it when defenseman Johnny Oduya came out from near the right goalpost and whipped a perfect centering pass that the Russian put past Lundqvist.

Lundqvist kept the game tied with a glove save on former Rangers defenseman Mike Mottau with just over 5 1/2 minutes to play, while Brodeur did his part by denying Prucha on an odd-man rush with 1:46 remaining in the period.

The goalies continued their duel in the second as Lundqvist sprawled to make a glove save on Travis Zajac's attempted deflection of a shot by Gionta with 11 1/2 minutes remaining. Just over three minutes later, Brodeur robbed Gomez with another glove save.

Both remained on their games in the third as Lundqvist denied Gionta's stuff attempt before stopping David Clarkson and making a stick save on Michael Rupp. Brodeur's best save of the third came with just under 12 minutes remaining, when he got his glove on a point-blank shot by Drury.