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Brodeur, Gionta lead Devils to third straight win

Feb 7, 2007 - 8:49 AM EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Ticker) -- Brian Gionta scored in the shootout and Marty Brodeur stopped all three shots after surviving overtime as the New Jersey Devils posted a 3-2 victory over the New York Rangers.

After Brodeur stopped Michael Nylander, Gionta deked Henrik Lundqvist and put a backhander over the pad and blocker of the Rangers' goaltender.

"It was just one of those things where he plays it real low, went post-to-post with his feet, so (I wanted to) just try to get a little speed, maybe reach around him and just try to get it over his head," Gionta said.

"It's different every time. I got kind of stuck on the first move there and I didn't have the speed to recover," Lundqvist said. "He got it up pretty quick. It's always frustrating when you lose a shootout. It's tough."

The Devils' goaltender then stopped Brendan Shanahan and Matt Cullen as New Jersey improved to 6-6 in the shootout. The Rangers fell to 5-1.

"(Cullen) tried to beat me on the glove side and I got my blocker up," Brodeur said. "I've been getting beat a lot in shootouts so to get a win, hey. We would have been satisfied with one point."

Struggling New York right winger Jaromir Jagr tied the game at 1:38 of the third period with his 20th goal of the season, just his eighth tally in his last 29 games.

Paul Martin and Zach Parise each scored for the Devils and Brodeur stopped 27 shots, including three in overtime when it seemed like the Rangers were on the attack the entire session.

"It was a big win, obviously. We know we could have played a little bit better," Devils coach Claude Julien said. "We did play against a team that is desperate to get some wins to get into the playoffs. We knew it was going to be a tough team. That penalty-kill in overtime was key for us and gave us an opportunity to win in the shootout. We knew it was going to be a tough team and it was."

Karel Rachunek scored his third goal of the season for New York, which is 3-7-1 in its last 11 games.

"It's not easy. To play hockey without confidence, is not easy," Jagr said. "The last three, four games, we had a two-goal lead, we lost."

The Devils opened the scoring with 5 1/2 minutes left in the first period when Scott Gomez skated into the Rangers' zone and dropped a pass for Martin, who wristed it over Lundqvist's glove.

The Rangers evened the game 75 seconds later on the power play, when Nylander passed from the right wing across to Rachunek, who blasted it past Brodeur's glove. It was Rachunek's third goal and first since December 14 at Dallas.

The Devils took a 2-1 lead with 1:42 left in the second when Parise took a backhand pass on right side from Jamie Langenbrunner and wristed it at Lundqvist, who let it go off his glove and trickle into the net.

"Jamie made a really good pass across," Parise said. "I didn't think he saw me and I was just trying to get a quick one on net. He got the glove on it and it just barely trickled across."

"We're playing really good hockey. We're doing what we got to do to win, whether it's OT, shootout or 6-5 game."

The Rangers were 1-for-6 on the power play and have converted just 5-of-26 in the last six games.

"We've had some difficulties scoring power-play goals," Rangers coach Tom Renney. "One for six isn't a great stat but when you're going 0-for-game after game after game, 1-for-6 is better than nothing at all. Certainly, it's not good enough."