Another team effort at MSG

December 28, 2008   ·   Hasan   ·   Jump to comments

Well I won’t have too detailed of a recap here as I’m usually preoccupied on Saturday nights and I’m sure Derek’s at work on a vent recap as we speak, or will be soon. 

In a surprisingly fight-less encounter between the Hudson rivals, the Devils won the game 4-2, controlling play for the most part against what I thought would be a desperate Ranger team – especially in the first period where they were outshot 17-7 by the Devils and gave up two goals in five minutes. 

Brian Rolston scored his fourth goal of the season at 2:54 on the power play, a welcome sight not only because it ended the longest team scoreless streak in franchise history but also it was one of Rolston’s trademark slapshots.  Less than two minutes later, while killing off a penalty the Devils got yet another shorthanded breakaway from the Rangers (after scoring twice down a man fifteen days ago at the Rock), and Patrik Elias would not miss tonight, beating Henrik Lundqvist high for his 17th goal of the year and the Devils quickly had a 2-0 lead.

Just 60 seconds after Elias scored, Nigel Dawes did answer back on the same power play making the score 2-1 and I started thinking ‘hoo boy, it’s going to be another one of those games’, mindful of the 8-5 slugfest earlier this month.  It wasn’t to be this time, and while the Devils didn’t score again in the first period Travis Zajac did restore the two-goal cushion midway through the second with his tenth goal of the season (he barely had ten goals all of last year, wow). 

New Jersey would retain that cushion for the rest of the second despite having to kill off a minute-long five on three in the latter stages of the period.  Scott Clemmensen made his best saves of the night, and perhaps as a Devil during a stretch where the Rangers peppered the net but were turned away, and probably were wondering by then if Martin Brodeur was merely wearing a different uniform and gear.

While the Devils remained on cruise control through the second and midway through the third, you knew it was only a matter of time before things got hairy.  Amazingly it was Garden whipping boy Dmitri Kalinin that cut the two-goal deficit in half and finally pumped some life back into the Garden crowd, beating Clemmensen on a pointshot through traffic.  With the game hanging in the balance, Zach Parise finally put the hammer down minutes later scoring his 19th and giving the Devils a 4-2 lead they would maintain without a problem (a rarity considering all the late-game tics we’ve had).

All in all, I just wanted 2-2 from this week and despite the longest scoreless streak in franchise history, they delivered 2-2 and all the other division teams lost tonight, to boot.  

BoNY Three Stars:

1. Travis Zajac (goal, two assists, +3)
2. Scott Clemmensen (31/33 saves)
3. Zach Parise (goal, assist, +2)