NHL Playoffs 2012: Rangers Stymie Kovalchuk, Devils Need to Show More Depth

Top gun Ilya Kovalchuk accounted for a leading six of the New Jersey Devils 36 shots on goal and eight of their 65 attempted shots in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals.

Strengthen your stomach to think back long and hard to secondary school math class and you will notice the Devils as a whole almost perfectly squared Kovalchuk’s output in both areas. But the trouble Saturday afternoon was that the opposing New York Rangers perfectly snuffed it all out.

As a consequence, New Jersey now trails the series 2-1 in the wake of Henrik Lundqvist’s second 3-0 shutout triumph in three games. With this best-of-seven bout hovering around the halfway mark, Kovalchuk remains one of six Devils forwards to have registered a point against New York, each of them having earned one apiece in Game 2.

With 12 of New Jersey’s 84 total shots―or 14.3 percent―at Lundqvist through three games, Kovalchuk has been the most consistent tester of the Rangers’ Vezina Trophy-caliber stopper. He issued three registered bids in both Games 1 and 2, one of them being the icebreaker in his team’s 3-2 victory Wednesday night.

And if not for the persistence of Lundqvist and his praetorian guards, the highest-paid and longest-contracted Devil could have easily given his team the upper hand on Saturday as well.

In the opening stanza, New York gave the impression of having utilized too little of the extra time off between Wednesday and Saturday’s clashes. The Devils pounced with eight individual skaters combining for 11 stabs at Lundqvist, including one from Kovalchuk.

But over the final 40 minutes, in which time the Rangers gradually thawed out, no other Devil would muster any more than two shots. Kovalchuk would take five out of New Jersey’s 25 shots on net, including the first one on a new sheet in the first minute of the middle frame.

Monitored by defenseman Anton Stralman, the New Jersey puck-carrier successfully circumvented the only barrier between himself and Lundqvist. But a fallen Stralman made a legal, last-ditch play with his stick that, together with Lundqvist’s patience, robbed Kovalchuk of a chance for a better-quality bid.

Later, shortly before the halfway mark of regulation, Kovalchuk broke loose in the center alley, only to be pestered from behind by a resolute Marc Staal. This time, his intended wrister went wide.

By the second intermission, Kovalchuk led all participants with four shots on net. He would not have an opportunity to add to that until the Devils trailed 2-0 on the strength of bang-bang strikes via New York’s Dan Girardi and Chris Kreider early in the third.

The ice chips stemming from the icebreaker and aftershock had barely settled when the Devils received their most radiant invitation for an equally hasty comeback. Staal’s infraction for holding the stick at 8:09 and Brad Richards’ interference penalty at 15:06 gave New Jersey four minutes of man-up action within a span of 8:57.

In that time, they mustered a cumulative three shots on Lundqvist. Two of those came off the stick of their power-play point-patrolling specialist, Kovalchuk.

But Lundqvist and Co. had an answer for everything on Saturday. Conversely, Kovalchuk’s company had altogether too little to build around his output.