Devils at Carolina Game 3 livecap!

April 19, 2009   ·   Hasan   ·   Jump to comments

10:31 ET DEVILS GOAL AND WIN!!!  Zajac the hero tonight with a rebound goal in front off of great work by the Parise line!  Devils lead the series 2-1 and Zajac snaps out of a deep scoring slump!  And now I can resume breathing.

10:29 ET Oy, our fourth line getting hemmed in the zone.

10:26 ET At least we managed a shot on net in this overtime.

10:24 ET Here we go…I feel like doing a Rocky-prayer in the corner.

10:19 ET You can feel the passion in Ken Daneyko‘s voice when he says he wants the Devils to go for it and not be afraid to make mistakes.  Let’s face it, Sutter’s coaching scared (I get the Madden line’s played well defensively but they add zero offensively and you’re not going to win if you can’t score) and the team played scared the last few minutes.  Hopefully this game’s a role reversal from two nights ago and the team comes out differently in OT.

10:09 ET The Devils have done the impossible…they’ve been so bad in these last few minutes I’m almost glad the game is going to overtime now.  Almost.  Of course watch some other scrub like Frantisek Kaberle beat us about four minutes in.  That always seems to be the way from Gleason to Josef Vasicek to Bates Battaglia to Nicklas Wallin (some of their other ‘immortal’ OT scorers against us over the years)

10:08 ET 39 seconds left and Staal goes postal after a Cane offsides.  If it was another point in the game he might have gotten an unsportsmanlike for shooting the puck off the board.

10:06 ET Staal with an open shot just wide and we’re on our heels…are we the ones actually playing for overtime?  Sutter might be certifiable.

10:05 ET Great, the MSG feed is threatening to crap out.

10:03 ET Double whew, Brodeur has to dive on the puck after a netmouth scramble with LaRose and Matt Cullen in front.

10:00 ET Oh good grief, Elias had a golden chance in the slot but held the puck about five minutes too long and finally shot it into a defenseman’s chest.  Less than five minutes left, even the Carolina crowd’s quieted down out of nervousness though I probably wouldn’t worry too much if I were a Canes fan.  They almost have us where they want us.

9:56 ET Lot of good that did, the same line takes another icing.

9:55 ET I have no idea why but Sutter’s taking a seemingly random timeout with about eight minutes left.  Maybe to rest the line on the ice after an icing call.  But now both teams have used their timeout.

9:52 ET Ugh, a nice deflection by Zajac – straight into Ward’s pad.

9:49 ET Wow, halfway through the third already.  The clock’s going too fast towards the dreaded overtime.

9:47 ET Whew…killed this one.  5-5 on the PK.

9:44 ET Oh great, Meathead Whitey takes another stupid penalty away from the play.  For the rest of the night, every player who takes a frigging penalty will be known as Meathead.

9:40 ET First TV timeout of the third, Canes look like the quicker team so far this period but at least we’ve stayed out of the box…for the moment.

9:34 ET Oy, Brodeur has to make a nice save on Staal at the side of the net just after he came out of the box.

9:32 ET Third period underway…still an uneasy feeling.  I guess giving up three straight goals to role players (two of them who don’t score at all) will do that.  Hopefully their big boys don’t rise up tonight.

9:14 ET Of course MSG Plus doesn’t bother staying with the telecast long enough to see what transpired in terms of penalties called.  It would be nice if the boys stayed the heck out of the box in the third period and not played to Carolina’s strength.  Still looks like a game where we’ll get snakebit late, but there’s twenty minutes (at least) left.

9:13 ET Second period comes to an end, but not without incident as the Canes try to rough up Parise and Zajac.  Whitey’s arguing with the ref, not a good sign.  Let’s see who the penalties (if any) are on.

9:11 ET Near the end of the period Brodeur and Eric Staal get matching minors for roughing in front of the net.  At least Staal’s off the ice for the four-on-four.

9:08 ET A couple of decent opportunities, but once again nothing to show for our PP.

9:04 ET Hopefully it’s our turn now, as Erik Cole is going to the box.

9:02 ET GOAL Frigging great, just after killing off both penalties, Chad LaRose ties the game at two.  LaRose’s goal came after the Martin penalty expired so the Devils’ PK is technically 4-4.

8:58 ET Oh come on, now Martin is in the box, a 5-on-3 coming up.  Can’t really get on the refs cause they all looked like legit calls except for the fact that Zubrus’s should have been matching minors.  Paul Maurice calls timeout here, resting his top scorers for the two-man advantage.

8:57 ET By the way Sutter is still juggling his d-pairings because of the penalties I guess.  And after looking at the videotape it was yet another stupid penalty by Holik who got his stick up on Avery Ruutu and they both fell down. 

8:54 ET And just what I was afraid would happen is, the Canes starting to get all the calls now.  Looks like Bobby Holik again, though I don’t really understand how he got the penalty when he got decked.  Gotta see the replay (after the TV timeout) on this one.

8:51 ET Midway through the period and game after another Carolina icing.

8:49 ET After some hair-raising moments our normally shaky PK managed to kill off two in a row.  Call the papers!

8:47 ET Great, Colin White gets buried by Tuomo Ruutu but Danius Zubrus gets the only penalty for sticking up for his teammate.

8:43 ET TV timeout after six minutes, the Devils looking a bit dominant to start the period after that late first-period goal.  Hopefully they cash in sooner rather than later.

8:42 ET Never mind, Martin just touched up for an icing and the d-pairings are back to normal.  Maybe he or someone else had an equipment issue?

8:41 ET A really good shift by the fourth line.  On the flip side the defensive pairs have been in flux this period, and I haven’t noticed Paul Martin on the ice yet.  I hope I’m just being paranoid.

8:37 ET Good news, the Devils kill the PP.  Better news, Salvador’s back.

8:35 ET Great, John Madden hooks Brindy and the Canes get an early power play chance.

8:34 ET Second period underway.

8:28 ET Apparently I wasn’t looking at the play closely enough before, it was actually Brendan Shanahan who caused the turnover behind the net, but Gionta did fake out the defenseman in front and beat Ward for his first of the playoffs.  Almost time for the second period now, keep coming at ‘em boys!

8:15 ET GOAL! What a play by Brian Gionta with just eight seconds left!  He stripped Joe Corvo of the puck behind the net and deked out Cam Ward in front, giving the Devils a stunning 2-1 lead heading into the locker room.  That could be a real momentum-turner!

8:13 ET Sigh…another power play goes kaput.  0-3 already and 2-30 overall in our last several games.  At least that’s not as bad as Calgary, who at one point was 0 for their last 49 I believe including the end of the regular season.  Now that’s scary.  Still, these could come back to haunt us.

8:10 ET Well another penalty on the Canes and this one on Rod Brind’Amour.  Maybe that positive trend of the first two games will continue, god knows the Devils need to stay out of the box themselves and eventually convert on one of these…I hope!

8:08 ET Okay, even I got a chuckle at Bill Cowher sounding the siren at RBC Center.

8:07 ET Oh great, the refs step in just when it looked like Gleason was going to take on David Clarkson, although Gleason did look a bit Sean Avery-ish trying to dupe him into dropping the gloves first.  As if he wasn’t enough of a punk already after his ‘guarantee’.

8:03 ET Not crickets in Carolina though, gotta give their fans the nod for enthusiasm, they put even our sellout crowds to shame.

8:02 ET Those are crickets you hear chirping after another ineffective Devils power play that had maybe two decent shots on it and a few more figure eights at the point.  They couldn’t even take advantage of a stickless and gimpy Pitkanen.

7:57 ET Okay it was a stick, not a puck and it cost Bayda and the Canes the first penalty of the game.  In fact, a double minor because of the blood.  Our boys have to take advantage now.

7:56 ET Even better, now Salvador’s taken a puck to the face and there’s blood.  Looks like he’ll be out for the rest of the period at least.

7:53 ET Oh great, a sloppy turnover by Bryce Salvador forces Brodeur to make two saves just before the first TV timeout.

7:51 ET To finish off the bookeeping, Parise’s goal came at 6:04, Bayda’s 31 seconds later with Travis Zajac also getting a secondary assist on Parise’s goal.

7:50 ET GOAL Before I could even update the Devils goal Bayda ties it, somehow a pass from behind the net went through three Devil defenders (and one Hurricane stick) to Bayda in the slot.

7:49 ET GOAL!  It looked like a deflection in front off a Paul Martin shot…and once again Zach Parise gets the goal!

7:47 ET Joni Pitkanen basically dances through half the Devils team but Broduer makes the save at the side of the net…and another Pitkanen pass has to be poke-checked away by Brodeur.

7:45 ET Chico just invented a word I think…saying the Devils have no ‘jitteriness’ to start the game.

7:44 ET Parise-Zajac-Rolston is on the ice for the third shift of the game…some good cycling work but of course Rolston shoots wide from the slot.  Moments later Brodeur gets caught out of his net but two backchecking Devils saved the day by cutting off the angle.

7:40 ET Finally, the opening faceoff!  By the way, Dennis LaRue and Kevin Pollak are the referees.  Just so I know who to yell at if things go awry, as they tend to with the Cane fans intimidating the refs.

7:36 ET Oh my god, enough about this dopey Game 2 OT goal already.  We get it Chico, it wasn’t Martin Brodeur‘s fault.  Watching a little of the replay the other night he spent so much time analyzing this goal it was mind-boggling.

7:32 ET Lock the doors and hide the kids, it’s time to wage war!

7:19 ET Speaking of MSG Plus, no Doc Emrick for the second straight game…boo.  At least he should be around for the rest of the series unless it gets to Game 6 and an NBC matchup takes him away again.

7:16 ET Okay, why is our pregame doing a mini-feature on the Canes’ Ryan Bayda?  Just because he went to North Dakota with Travis and Zach?  Maybe that’s something you do on a regular season game and I’m sure he’s a nice kid and all but on the eve of a playoff matchup I don’t want to hear about anyone on the other team.

6:57 ET Also at the start of the game it looks like Sutter will try to change the lineup as little as possible, putting the dissapointing Brian Rolston on the Parise-Zajac line with Holik going on the fourth line while keeping the ‘checking’ line and Elias’s line together – subject to change at a moment’s notice of course.  That should be enough info for now…be back at 7:30 for the actual start of the game, unless some other news hits during the pregame.

6:55 ET By the way, I’m putting the over-under on Holik penalties at 1.5 and betting the over.  Apparently Brent Sutter was so concerned about Holik’s penchant for unscheduled trips to the box that he considered dressing seven defensemen instead of restoring Holik to the lineup.  Can’t say I blame him in that sense though I don’t see what a seventh D would add except maybe in the case of overtime (which doesn’t tend to last too long for us).

6:52 ET Okay it’s a little early to start but looks like all systems are ago for this livecap!  The pregame’s in a few minutes, but I’ve been on pins and needles for about the last hour wanting to get this baby started.  As has already been reported, Bobby Holik will take the captain’s place in the lineup.