On a lazy Sunday afternoon affair in Madison Square Garden, the New Jersey Devils outlasted the Rangers in overtime for their first win.
By Patrick Comia
Don’t look now, but here come the Devils.
Ok, ok, too soon. However, the team finally got the winless monkey off their backs with a win against their old rival, the New York Rangers.
It may have took overtime, but the Devils were accustomed to these situations. This afternoon, the game felt eerily similar to Friday Night’s game against the San Jose Sharks, which saw them go all the way to a shootout to determine a winner.
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Not this time, but it was trending towards that ending. Overall, it was a very unexciting game. The two teams, who have been the bitterest of rivals, didn’t display a lot of animosity towards one another, except for a few instances.
And that started in the first period. The Rangers got on the board first off a nice pass from rookie Oscar Lindberg to Derek Stepan, who is skating in on goal. He out-deked Cory Schneider, and scored on a backhand shot.
For the first half of the period, the Rangers were allover the Devils, using their team speed to their advantage, causing some confusion and the Devils being stuck in their own zone.
However, Schneider kept the team in the game with some marvelous saves like this one on Rick Nash:
The Devils got some inspiration from Kyle Palmieri, who dropped the gloves with Rangers defenseman Kevin Klein. The two tussled and each earned five minutes near the end of the period.
Not sure why Palmieri targeted Klein, but it appeared to be a reaction from an earlier incident along the team benches.
Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh was almost put into the Rangers bench by Stephen Gionta. After, Jarret Stoll came over and gave Gionta a shove. Soon, players from both benches met in the middle and exchanged some words.
New Jersey was able to tie up the game thanks to some great defense and an aggressive approach to the goal.
Devils defenseman Damon Severson poke checked the puck away from Rangers J.T. Miller. Mike Cammalleri and Adam Henrique was there to corral the puck and push the play back into the offensive zone.
With Lee Stempniak as an option to his right, Henrique took straight towards Henrik Lundqvist for his second goal in two games.
The Devils picked up their play to start the period, which helped result in that goal. At one point, they didn’t allow a Rangers shot till near seven minutes into the second.
After a sloppy third period by both teams, the game went into the fast and furious three-on-three overtime. The Devils were lucky to not have the Rangers score.
One Rangers scoring opportunity was avoided by Devils captainAndy Greene‘s heads p play, clearing the blue paint and preventing McDonagh from scoring into a wide-open net.
The Captain was clutch. #NJDvsNYR #RELENTLESS pic.twitter.com/DH6voiMZIe
— New Jersey Devils (@NHLDevils) October 18, 2015
After another tense moment, when Stepan rang a shot off the post, the Devils caught the Rangers on a two-on-one odd man rush. Henrique and former Rangers forward Stempniak combined for the game-winning on-timer.
Lee Stempniak’s OT snipe gives the @NHLDevils their 1st W of the season. #NJDvsNYR https://t.co/K4OoHb8I5J — NHL (@NHL) October 18, 2015
And with that, the Devils can finally remove their name from among the teams without a win this season. A well-deserved two points, a well-deserved win!!
Congratulations to John Hynes on recording his first W as Head Coach of the #NJDevils! #NJDvsNYR
— New Jersey Devils (@NHLDevils) October 18, 2015
New Jersey will be in action on Tuesday, as they travel out west and visit Mike Smith and the Arizona Coyotes.
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