Hudson River rivalry all squared up The Devils you know

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Frank Franklin II / the associated press New Jersey Devils� Anton Volchenkov and New York Rangers� Carl Hagelin (left) are involved in a nasty second-period collision. (CP)

NEW YORK -- On a bit of a strange night at Madison Square Garden, there was some logic in the end.

Sure, the door to a penalty box got stuck, and three goals required forensic analysis to figure out who scored -- two of them had the scoring changed, after the fact -- and Martin Brodeur played like he was 35 again. But it all added up to a 3-2 victory by the New Jersey Devils over the New York Rangers in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference final, and a series knotted at one. That much made sense.

The two teams had exchanged goals for the first two periods when the fifth deflected goal of the evening was scored by New Jersey's David Clarkson, who dropped his stick at just the right time to redirect an Adam Henrique shot past Henrik Lundqvist with 17:29 left. After that you would say the Devils shut the door, but perhaps another metaphor would be better on this night.

It was the Rangers who had the first best chance; Ryan McDonagh, the defenceman who chased down two Devils' breakaways in Game 1, swooped around the net and had the 40-year-old Brodeur beat, but as his stick curled around the post he lost an edge and sent it across the crease and under Brodeur.

It was that kind of game, where opportunities mattered. Everyone was talking about New York's shot blocking after Game 1, and on one early power play New Jersey's Ilya Kovalchuk dangled the puck and pump-faked like Kobe Bryant to shake the New York defender who was trying to stay in his shooting lane. But after a Brian Boyle slashing minor with seven minutes left in the first, the puck was moved beautifully, and Kovalchuk snapped a wicked little wrist shot past Lundqvist without a pesky defender involved. It was 1-0 Devils, after one.

Alexei Ponikarovsky took a questionable interference penalty 48 seconds into the second period, though, and the Rangers tied the game on a power-play goal by defenceman Marc Staal, whose point shot deflected off, in order, New Jersey defenceman Bryce Salvador, the end boards, and a lunging Brodeur. Brodeur had just delivered a spectacular save on Marian Gaborik -- on his stomach, stopping the puck by kicking up his pad -- but could not stop the vagaries of physics.

When Travis Zajac took an interference penalty 10 minutes later, though, things got laugh-out-loud funny, since the door to the penalty box would not open. The Madison Square Garden workmen pushed it, pulled it, kicked it, examined it, and failed to open it. Players and coaches tried and failed not to laugh, and finally Zajac was put in the Rangers box just in time for the Devils door to finally get cracked open. Zajac took care to make sure it would open again when he got in, just in case.

The Rangers then scored on a Chris Kreider deflection, Zajac escaped the box, and the Rangers led 2-1. New Jersey tied it just before the end of the second on a fourth-line manufacturing job finished with a deflection by Ryan Carter, and to the third we went.

There, the Devils took the lead back for the final time, Rangers coach John Tortorella appeared to bench Gaborik for the first half of the period, and the Devils held on.

-- Postmedia News

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Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 17, 2012 C1