Rangers continue dominance of Devils
NEW YORK: The New York Rangers scored three third-period goals to start the NHL playoffs with a 4-1 win over the New Jersey Devils in Newark on Wednesday.
In another playoff opener in Pittsburgh, Gary Roberts scored twice to lead the Penguins past Ottawa 4-0. Marc-Andre Fleury made 26 saves for the shutout.
Former Devil Scott Gomez had three assists and Henrik Lundqvist made 26 saves to help the Rangers draw first blood in the opening round series against their bitter rivals.
"There were no extra emotions," Gomez told reporters. "It's the playoffs."
Gomez and the Rangers have had the Devils' number all year, going 7-0-1 against them in the regular season, and the trend continued to give New York home-ice advantage in the series. Game 2 is on Friday in Newark and the Devils need a win to avoid going to Madison Square Garden with a two-game deficit.
"You know the Devils are going to come at us hard on Friday," New York coach Tom Renney said. "We've had a lot of success against them this year but they never make it easy on you."
After a scoreless first period, New York's Brendan Shanahan and New Jersey's Paul Martin traded goals before the Rangers came to life in the final 20 minutes.
Ryan Callahan's short-handed marker at 7:23 turned out to be the game winner, a wraparound shot that New Jersey goalie Martin Brodeur thought he should have saved.
"I made a mistake and I cost us," Brodeur said.
Goals by Sean Avery with less than three minutes left and Nigel Dawes into an empty net completed the scoring.
In Pittsburgh, Roberts had two goals, only one fewer than he had during an injury-interrupted season, and Evgeni Malkin - the NHL's No 2 scorer - had a goal and two assists. Pittsburgh, which never recovered from its opening-game 6-3 loss to Ottawa during its five-game series last April, takes a 1-0 lead into Game 2 on Friday. The Penguins have won their last nine home games.
Fleury made 26 saves in his first career playoff shutout, improving to 11-1-2 since returning on Feb 28 from a nearly three-month layoff with a badly sprained ankle.
Agencies
(China Daily 04/11/2008 page24)
