A fitting title since this game felt like an episode of Charlie Brown.  Every time he got close to the football, Lucy would pull it away.  That was the Devils in a nutshell tonight.  Three times the Rangers took the lead, three times the Devils tied it but could never get the lead and finally just made too many errors in a sloppy 5-3 loss.

The game started one-sided as the Rangers were the only team to take the ice in the first period.  Ironically if it wasn’t for Martin Brodeur (who up to this point has had an off series) the score would have been worse than 1-0 at the end of one.  The Rangers’ only goal came after a failed Devils clearing attempt - get used to reading that - a great keep by Ranger defenseman Fedor Tyutin and a breakdown in the Devil defense leaving Scott Gomez all alone for a power play goal, his first of the series.

After a lackluster first period the Devils stormed out of the dressing room and scored 31 seconds in when Patrik Elias put home a rebound to tie the score - the first time.  Less than three minutes later Martin Straka would score on a two-on-one after some sloppy defending, both on the part of Jamie Langenbrunner and Colin White not keeping the puck in the zone and on Mike Mottau who failed to defend the pass as the defenseman back on the two-on-one.  Just four minutes later Elias tied the game again with a power play goal, deflecting the puck past a suddenly solvable Henrik Lundqvist.  Yet again the Devils would blow the tie a few minutes later when a turnover led to a Chris Drury deflection in front to give the Rangers a 3-2 lead going into the third.

Once again the Devils came out like gangbusters in the third, and their renewed effort was rewarded when Mike Mottau scored at 4:37, tying the game for the third time.  For the next several minutes the Devils pressed but could not put that last goal past Lundqvist that could have changed the series.  Instead it was the Rangers that would once again show the killer instinct in the third period, taking advantage of yet another failed clear by Langenbrunner and company, when Marc Staal blew a shot past Brodeur, the most stoppable one of the four he gave up.  In a fitting end to the game, the Devils pulled Brodeur with less than 15 seconds left and John Madden won a faceoff, but wound up accidentally shooting the puck into his own net.  Gomez was credited with the goal, which sealed the game and most likely the series.