New Jersey Devils stay hot with fifth straight over New York Rangers in 1-0 shutout -NHL Update
It was the second matchup between rival teams New Jersey and New York in the past five, which the Devils certainly did not let go out of hand by thrashing the Rangers for their fifth straight victory with a, 1-0, shutout on Tuesday night, February 7, 2012, at the sold-out Madison Square Garden in New York, New York.
New Jersey is definitely hot at the moment and surprisingly, it all started with their previous 4-3 victory against the Rangers in a shootout on Tuesday, January 31.
The puck barely touched the ice as the players from both sides exchanged fists in what looked like a boxing ring instead of a hockey match as Mike Rupp and Cam Janssen fought while Eric Boulton and Brandon Prust were also booked with five-minute major penalties.
Seeing two veteran goalkeepers of the National Hockey League (NHL) play is always an exciting event, especially when the two are rivals like Martin Brodeur and Henrik Lundqvist.
Brodeur had 30 saves to totally shutout the top team in the Eastern Conference, while Lundqvist unluckily fell short on one for a total of 21 deflections.
"You always get the sense when Marty and Lundqvist play each other, you can see that they want to out-do each other," New Jersey captain, Zach Parise, said. "Ninety-nine times out of 100, it's a great goaltending battle and it was again tonight. Marty was great. He made huge saves and really got us that win."
David Clarkson was lucky enough to get the only goal of the night nearly midway through the opening period during their first power play opportunity as Stu Bickel of New York was called for holding.
Brodeur worked extra hard in his net after the Devils’ made the game-winning shot in the first, keeping the Rangers out for the remaining two periods.
"We played a great hockey game, right from the start," Brodeur said. "We said it would probably be a dirty 1-0 game that we would have to win. That's exactly what happened."
New Jersey have their eyes set on a sixth win when they return home to host the St. Louis Blues on Thursday while New York Rangers will be welcoming Tampa Bay Lightning on the same day.
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