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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Late marker rescues Devils

Carter puts Rangers on ropes, Jersey one win from final

By: Bruce Arthur

Posted: 05/24/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Frank Franklin II / the associated press New Jersey centre Travis Zajac prepares to unleash a shot that would give the Devils a 3-0 lead over the Rangers midway through the first period Wednesday. (CP)

NEW YORK -- It plays out as a sort of symphony, after the fact, when at the time it's just a goal.

But the New Jersey Devils had blown a 3-0 lead in a hostile building, and it felt like the Eastern Conference final was hanging in the Madison Square Garden air. The New York Rangers were coming. The New York Rangers were here.

And suddenly, New Jersey's fever broke. Ilya Kovalchuk was out there with fourth-liners Stephen Gionta and Ryan Carter -- "Maybe I take just a little longer shift, as usual," said Kovalchuk with a smile -- and led the way on the forecheck, as what New Jersey calls the F1, or first forward.

And it happened so fast. Kovalchuk laid his 230 pounds into Michael Del Zotto in the corner, jarring the puck loose. Stephen Gionta, Brian Gionta's slightly bigger little brother, swooped in and grabbed it. With Dan Girardi bearing down, Gionta whipped a pass -- "I closed my eyes and threw it out to (Carter)" he said, half-joking -- that went straight to Carter, who had beaten Brad Richards to the puck.

The puck went in with 4:24 left, breaking a 3-3 tie. It was the first time in the playoffs that New York's Henrik Lundqvist had surrendered four goals, and it happened on just 16 shots on goal. It was Gionta's second point of the game, after scoring the game's opening goal for a fourth line that has been marvellous. And after an empty-net goal the Devils won 5-3, and will carry a 3-2 series lead back to Newark for Game 6 Friday, where elimination will be hanging in the air.

"Unbelievable," said Devils captain Zach Parise, of the Gionta pass. "I don't think anyone saw it coming, and then he finds Carts, right on his tape. It was great. What a great feeling on the bench."

It had been a strange and wonderful game that tipped one way and then the other, like a ship in a great storm. New Jersey scored three goals in the opening 9:49, silencing the Garden, shocking New York. And then the Devils stopped playing, and New York found deathbed desperation. The Rangers scored once late in the period, then again 32 seconds into the second on a Ryan Callahan goal that certainly looked like it was kicked in. But the Rangers were dominant.

"We started to play more and more in waves, kept getting better, chipped away, chipped away," said Rangers forward Brian Boyle.

On the third goal, Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur went to play the puck but it bounced on the ragged MSG ice, outside the trapezoid, which was essentially introduced to negate his peerless puck-handling. Brodeur left it there, and Marian Gaborik shot it across the crease, and Brodeur looked like a rhino trying to tap-dance on the thing until he kicked it into the net, 17 seconds into the third. And oh, how they chanted "Mar-ty! Mar-ty!", from the very bottom of their lungs.

It got weird and scrambly after that, to the point.

-- Postmedia News

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 24, 2012 C1

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