New York Rangers Beat New Jersey Devils (Again)

Thanks, Devils. They seem to solve all the Rangers’ problems, don’t they?

The Blueshirts defeated David Puddy’s favorite team (el diablo!) out at the Prudential Center yet again, by a score of 5-2. New Jersey was sorely undermanned (John MacLean had to fill in and take a few shifts), but it still counts in the standings. It was the first time the Rangers faced the Devils franchise without Martin Brodeur in goal since they were the Kansas City Scouts back in 1976.

After another slow start and falling behind 1-0 in the first period, the Blueshirts just completely turned it on in the second.

New Jersey aided the Rangers immensely by having one player after another take turns sitting in the penalty box (four infractions, all in the second). New York ended up with two five-on-threes in the period and scored on both of them. That would be routine for most teams, but five-on-threes haven’t been the Rangers’ best friend this season.

Michal Rozsival scored the first one, slapping it by Kevin Weekes (see what happens when you actually shoot the puck, Rozsy?). Chris Drury followed him by sailing one into the net. Then the Korpedo got into the act.

Lauri Korpokoski notched his first NHL goal, when he whistled a wrist shot past Weekes. And the final goal of the period was put in by Nikolai Zherdev, again on a five-on-three.

The four goals were scored in an eight minute and five second span. Zherdev would add another one in the third to finish the scoring (while Weekes spent the period in the locker room watching the Knicks game).

And look who loaded up on the assists: Digel Dawes had two, Dan Fritsche had two and Dan Girardi had two (though that’s not a surprise). Scott Gomez was out with a leg injury (rumor has it, it’s an ankle bruise), so Tom Renney had to reshuffle his lines once more.

The Korpedo centered Fritsche and Dawes, and wouldn’t you know, they racked up five points. Drury skated between Ryan Callahan and Markus Naslund. The Playstation line was back together. And it’ll take an act of God to separate the fourth line.

The scoring explosion in the second was a sight for sore eyes. And the Rangers added some aggressive forechecking, speed and hitting to the mix as well. There was the usual pushing, shoving, facials and how-do-you-do’s by both teams.

Colton Orr was nice and aggressive in this game (and picked up a 10-minute misconduct). And Brandon Dubinsky got into a brew-ha-ha with Dainius Zubrus. Zubrus ended up with his sweater over his head (that somehow happened to me at work today, too, but that’s nothing new), which is a no-no, and the Devil was kicked out of the game. But first he fell onto Dubinsky after freaking out, as he’s afraid of the dark.

We don’t really have to say anything about Henrik Lundqvist (27 saves). He only let in two goals. We say that after every game. He made a number of great saves. We say that after every game, too. And he beat the Devils. We say that after every Rangers-Devils game. The team celebrated the victory by sending Patrick Rissmiller down to Hartford for a conditioning assignment.

Next game: Saturday night vs. the Big, Bad Bruins

Bag-O’-Knuckles-O-Meter

Colton Orr: 4

Aaron Voros: 4

Brandon Dubinsky: 2

Paul Mara: 2

Ryan Callahan: 1

Marc Staal: 1