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Devils top Rangers, clinch home ice

Apr 7, 2008 - 1:46 AM By Daren Smith PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

NEWARK, New Jersey (Ticker) -- The New Jersey Devils already had saved themselves the extra $8 toll at the Lincoln Tunnel. Then they finally proved capable of beating the New York Rangers.

Patrik Elias scored the decisive goal in the fourth round of the shootout as the Devils posted a 3-2 victory over the Rangers on Sunday to secure home-ice advantage in their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.

These often bitter rivals knew before the game they would meet in the conference quarterfinals as the fourth and fifth seeds. But home-ice advantage in that best-of-seven series was up for grabs, with the Rangers needing a win in regulation to secure the extra game at Madison Square Garden.

New York erased a 2-0 deficit, tying it on captain Jaromir Jagr's 25th goal at 4:46 of the third period. The Rangers pulled goaltender Henrik Lundqvist for an extra attacker with 62 seconds remaining and gained a 6-on-4 advantage 33 seconds later, when New Jersey's John Madden was penalized for hooking.

But three-time Vezina Trophy winner Martin Brodeur stopped a blast by former Devil Brendan Shanahan and Elias won a key faceoff with 7.5 seconds to go, rendering the final outcome meaningless.

"I was pretty pumped when that faceoff went out of the zone," Elias said. "I hadn't been having a great day against (Chris) Drury tonight, but I looked at the way they were set up and made eye contact with (assistant coach Larry Robinson) on the bench and knew to go ahead with it."

New Jersey came up empty on a pair of overtime power plays, sending the teams to a shootout for the third time in eight regular-season meetings - seven of which New York won. Another former Devil, Scott Gomez, beat Brodeur on the Rangers' third attempt, but Zach Parise equalized on the Devils' next try.

After Fredrik Sjostrom barely got off a shot on his chance in the fourth round, Elias snapped a shot that hit the crossbar and fell into the net to end the regular season.

"For us to know we can beat these guys, and the other way around for them, is important," Elias said.

Brodeur, who made 17 saves, agreed.

"It was a big game for us in terms of what we wanted to establish over the last seven games. This was our seventh game," he joked. "We haven't scored more than two goals against the Rangers yet, but at least this was a victory."

Madden and Mike Rupp scored first-period goals for the Devils (46-29-7), who avoided losing eight games to the same team in the same season for the first time in team history.

"I don't think any of us thought we couldn't do it," Rupp said. "We feel good about our game tonight. We'll build off this and try to get some momentum."

Drury had the other tally for the Rangers (42-27-13), who head into the postseason with back-to-back shootout losses.

Asked if the team seemed deflated once the third period ended, Shanahan said, "When you play a game, whether it's hockey or just in your backyard, you play to win. I don't think it was very difficult drawing motivation."

The Devils were the team that appeared motivated at the start, grabbing a 1-0 lead just under 4 1/2 minutes into the opening period when Madden put his own rebound past Lundqvist.

They doubled the advantage at 12:57 as Rupp ended a 31-game goal-scoring drought. He got the puck in the neutral zone and managed to stay outside of defenseman Michal Rozsival before sliding a wrist shot from low in the left faceoff circle under Lundqvist's right pad.

Held to two shots in the first period, the Rangers got on the board 19 seconds into the second. After his centering pass hit the side of the net, the puck came back to Drury, who whipped a wrister inside the far goalpost for his 25th goal.

Jagr got the equalizer moments after New Jersey's Dainius Zubrus appeared to take a stick to the face in the neutral zone. Play was allowed to continue, Jagr took a pass from Sean Avery while cutting across the low slot and wristed the puck by Brodeur's stick side.

"We tied it up, we had chances (on the power play)," Rangers coach Tom Renney said. "Our tendency is to come back and recover and correct our mistakes."

Devils coach Brent Sutter believed a penalty was warranted on the play involving Zubrus.

"How many times a year is that call made?" he asked. "I'm not going to get into what was called and what wasn't called. It was probably something that was missed."

New Jersey was given a late power play after New York defenseman Marek Malik was called for holding with 5:51 to go in regulation. Parise had two glorious chances from an almost identical spot on the right doorstep, but Lundqvist made a glove save on the first one and appeared to get a piece of the second with 4:34 left.