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Clemmensen, Devils hand Rangers fifth straight loss

Feb 10, 2009 - 4:00 AM NEWARK, New Jersey (Ticker) -- Scott Clemmensen made 27 saves to record his first shutout in nearly five years, leading the New Jersey Devils to a 3-0 victory over the slumping New York Rangers on Monday.

Former Ranger Bobby Holik and All-Star Zach Parise scored 87 seconds apart in the second period for the Devils, who have won 10 of their last 12 contests.

"Sometimes when a team gets beat pretty bad, you've gotta be ready for them to have a great bounce-back game," Parise said. "At the same time, we needed to have a better effort than we did against L.A. (a 3-1 loss on Saturday) and we did."

All-Star Henrik Lundqvist stopped 28 shots for the Rangers, who were handed their season-worst fifth consecutive loss.

"It wasn't a win, we know that and I'm not going to dress it up as anything (more) than that. Having said that, it's an improvement," New York coach Tom Renney said. "What we want to do, quickly, is continue to improve our game to the point that we're winning again."

Filling in for future Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur - who suffered an elbow injury in early November, Clemmensen extended New York's offensive woes. The Rangers have managed five goals during their current losing streak.

"We can fall into the trap of being negative and we can fall into the trap of feeling sorry for ourselves, and we can fall into the trap of not clicking in certain parts of our game or we can suck it up and put our shoulders in and keep working at it," Renney said. "We're going to find a way. It's as simple as that."

Clemmensen turned aside seven shots in the first period, nine more in the next and 11 in the third to complete his third career blanking and first since March 26, 2004.

"I've said it's most important to get the win and shutouts are gravy for goalies, but it feels really good when you actually get them," Clemmensen said.

A quick spurt in the middle session provided all the offense that Clemmensen would need.

Exactly eight minutes into the period, Holik opened the scoring by converting a pass from another former Ranger, Brendan Shanahan, for his fourth goal of the season.

"I got lucky," Holik said. "I actually was patient enough that when Shanny laid it in front of the net, for one time, I timed it well and skated right into it. A little hard work and a lot of luck."

Shanahan, who netted 52 goals over the previous two campaigns with New York, has collected three tallies and two assists in nine games since joining the Devils.

"It feels great to win, and that's why I came here - to be a contributor to wins," Shanahan said. "That's my motivation, so I can't say this win feels better than the last one."

After New York's Brandon Dubinsky was whistled for holding, Parise doubled the advantage at 9:27. During a scramble in the front of the net, Parise managed to poke a rebound past Lundqvist.

Parise added an empty-netter with 1:43 left in the contest to seal the win and match his career high with 32 goals this season.

"They're always fun to get, but not as important as getting points 70 and 71. That's a better feeling," the Minnesota native said. "It was a great bounce-back game for us."

The Rangers, meanwhile, were 0-for-5 on the power play, totaling only six shots in a first period that featured four chances with the man advantage.

"Maybe they're trying to pick corners, maybe they're trying to be too precise, maybe they're trying to pass the puck into the net," Renney said. "That is not a guess, that's reality."

New York's best scoring chance came early in the second period, when Nikolai Zherdev snapped a shot off the crossbar. Clemmensen also made a handful of key stops in the third, getting his right arm on a one-time blast by Rangers captain Chris Drury from the top of the left circle on a power play with 9:41 remaining.

"It's always nerve-racking to play in this league, especially when you only have a small cushion to work with," said Clemmensen, who carried shutouts into the third period seven times before finally completing one.

"That's how it's going to be. This league is really tough, especially against a team like the Rangers."