New York Rangers beat New Jersey Devils, 5-2: NHL Recap
Chris Drury notched his first goal of the season and rookie Henrik Lundqvist turned aside 24 shots as the New York Rangers clinched a play-off spot with a 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils
at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.
Wojtek Wolski, Ryan McDonagh and Brandon Prust each also lit the lamp while Vinny Prospal had a goal and an assist for the Rangers, who punched their ticket to the play-offs with the victory
and the Carolina Hurricanes' loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning later on Saturday night.
The Rangers (44-33-5) clinched eighth play-off spot and will open the post-season with the Washington Capitals.
Ilya Kovalchuk had a goal and an assist while Nick Palmieri also tallied a goal for the Devils, who will finish their season on Sunday against Boston Bruins. Goalie Martin Brodeur surrendered
all five goals on 29 shots in the defeat.
New Jersey was officially eliminated from post-season league last week and will end the season with a defeat for the first time since the 1990-91 season.
The Rangers' Captain Chris Drury surprisingly returned to the line-up after being side-lined since 3 February with a knee injury that required surgery. He posted his first goal of the
season early in the first period to erase the Devils' lead.
New Jersey got the scoring started less than three minutes into the opening period when Palmieri redirected a pass from Kovalchuk past Lundqvist.
Drury tied it at 1-1 less than four minutes into the first frame as he fired a back-handed shot past the Devils' net-minder.
Drury said about his goal, "You don't want to give them a chance to get comfortable with the lead and build momentum off of it. Any time you give up a goal you try to respond the right
way and as fast as you can."
The Devils went ahead by 2-1 with less than a minute in the first period when Kovalchuk grabbed the puck in the left circle and shot it over the shoulder of the goalie Lundqvist.
The Rangers pulled even in less than two minutes into the middle period. The goal came when Wolski hit a shot from the left circle on a 2-on-1 break that beat Brodeur on the short-side
for his 12th goal of the season.
New York gained a one-goal lead with less than nine minutes remaining in the second period. The game was set up by Prospal, who sent a pass from behind the net to the right circle from
where defenseman McDonagh lasered a shot past Brodeur's glove to make it 3-2.
Prust gave the Rangers a 4-2 lead with less than four minutes to play in the second frame when he whacked in a rebound off a shot from Brandon Dubinsky for his 13th goal of
the season.
Prospal closed the scoring to make the final 5-2 for the Rangers mid-way through the final period. It happened so when Propal tipped in an Artem Anisimov's feed for his ninth goal of the
season.
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