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Quick goals help give Rangers 2-0 series lead

Apr 12, 2008 - 4:51 AM By Joe Rizzo PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

NEWARK, New Jersey (Ticker) -- The New York Rangers dominated the season series with the New Jersey Devils because of their play in the third period. They did more of the same in Game Two of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series Friday.

Captain Jaromir Jagr and Sean Avery scored 23 seconds apart early in the third and Henrik Lundqvist stopped 26 shots as the Rangers edged the Devils, 2-1, to take a two-games-to-none lead in their series.

Former Devil Scott Gomez notched his fourth assist of the series for the Rangers, who host Game Three on Sunday.

John Madden scored late in the third for the Devils, who went 0-for-5 on the power play.

"Their special teams are playing well," New Jersey's Patrik Elias said. "Their penalty kill did a good job today. We have to play a little smarter and stay positive. That's all you can do."

"That 'must-win' gets thrown out there a lot," Devils captain Jamie Langenbrunner said. "But obviously, you don't want to go down 3-0 (in the series). We know what that means. We have to throw it all out there. We've been close in these games, but we have to find that little bit extra to put us over the top."

Jagr snapped a scoreless tie at 4:26 of the third, when he took the puck in the right corner, turned and skated behind the net before ripping a sharp-angle wrist shot from the bottom of the left faceoff circle that caromed off the back of goaltender Martin Brodeur and into the net.

"I was thinking pass," Jagr admitted. "I turned around and tried to shoot it on the net because you never know what could happen."

The goal was the 73rd of Jagr's postseason career, tying him with Dino Ciccarelli for 12th place on the all-time list.

Immediately after the tally, Brodeur motioned to defenseman Colin White, who appeared to bump into the netminder just before Jagr unleashed his shot.

It was the second suspect goal allowed by Brodeur in as many games, as the tiebreaking tally by Ryan Callahan in Game One came after the three-time Vezina Trophy winner waited too long to play a puck in the crease.

"For me, I want to be perfect as much as I can," Brodeur said. "I want to be. It's just a matter of bounces."

Avery, who has served as Brodeur's tormentor since being acquired by New York last season from Los Angeles, doubled the lead at 4:49, beating Brodeur high to the glove side with a hard wrist shot from the top of the slot for his second goal of the series.

The Rangers have outscored the Devils, 10-2, in the third period - including a 5-1 margin over the first two games of the series - in winning nine of the 10 games between the clubs in 2007-08. New Jersey's offense has beaten Lundqvist just 11 times in those 10 contests.

Brian Gionta appeared to get the Devils on the board with just over six minutes left, but a video review was deemed inconclusive to overturn the initial call of no goal. The replay appeared to show the puck crossed the goal line but was not fully clear.

Madden finally solved Lundqvist with 83 seconds left, redirecting a pass from Patrik Elias at the bottom of the slot between the netminder's pads with Brodeur pulled for an extra attacker.

Lundqvist faced just one more shot the rest of the way and admitted he was glad overtime was not necessary.

"I was really tired tonight after the game," he said. "You put in so much energy. You're not physically tired, but you're mentally drained."

The penalty-filled game featured a sequence in the second period in which New Jersey's Dainius Zubrus received a minor penalty on four straight shifts. Gomez also got into a post-whistle scrap with Langenbrunner, and the pair exchanged heated words from their respective penalty boxes.

It also featured a continuation of the angst between Avery and Brodeur, as the agitating forward was sent to the penalty box near the end of the second for goaltender interference.

Brodeur finished with 27 saves for the Devils, who are down two games to none for the sixth time in 37 playoff series. The only other time they opened a series with two home losses, they rallied to win the next four in the 1994 Eastern Conference semifinals against the Boston Bruins.

New Jersey never has been swept in a postseason series.

As is common for a playoff series between the Hudson River rivals, the Rangers had a significant number of fans in the crowd at "The Rock," the nickname for the Devils' new home arena. With Newark even more accessible to New York City than New Jersey's previous home in the Meadowlands, Rangers fans took to showering Brodeur with sarcastic cheers throughout the game.

"We have ears," Madden said. "At playoff time, we're kind of used to it. It happened before, but at least at Continental (Airlines Arena), you couldn't really hear it with the way it was built. Now, you can really hear it."

"We know anytime we play the Rangers, there's going to be a lot of (their) fans in the building," New Jersey's Jay Pandolfo added. "There's a lot of New Jersey people that are Rangers fans. There's not much you can do about it. If you've been here for a while, you know it's going to happen. We don't really have much control over it."