Game o' the Day

Rangers Turn Up Heat on Devils
By Matthew Secosky, Not Quite So Messed Up

Mike Richter stopped 35 shots for his second shutout this series and Adam Graves tallied his first goal of the playoffs to lead the Rangers to a 3-0 victory. With the win, the Rangers take a 3-1 series lead into Sunday afternoon's Game 5 matchup in New Jersey.
Action was swift from the get go, and New Jersey got the first chance on the power play only 1:35 into the game. New Jersey was in excellent position to take control, but Richter held off the Jersey assault. A few minutes later the Rangers got the advantage, and they wasted no time getting the puck in the net.
Adam Graves gained the Jersey line, dropped the puck to Mark Messier and set up shop in front of the net. Messier then found Brian Leetch breaking in late, and after a few strides Leetch connected with Alexander Karpovtsev at the right point. Karpovtsev quickly fired a hard shot and Graves deflected her home at 5:49 of the first period to put the Rangers up for good. The goal was Graves' first of the playoffs.
With a little over ten minutes to go, the Devils had a goal disallowed. Randy McKay deflected a Bobby Holik centering pass past Richter with his foot but his skate was in the crease before the puck. The call really killed the Devils' spirit. So after one, the Rangers led 1-0.
New Jersey was forced to open it up in the second, and both teams let loose with 16 shots on net. The Rangers got a great chance when Wayne Gretzky set Niklas Sundstrom up at point blank range early in the period, but Martin Brodeur made a diving save to keep the puck out of the net. New Jersey then got its best chance of the period when Scott Stevens found himself shooting from in close on Richter. The rebound from his shot got picked up in the high slot by McKay, but McKay only managed to skate around the net without finding any daylight behind Richter. Hell he didn't even attempt a shot. Why? Probably because he is Randy McKay. As my high school coach always said: "Shoot the puck lad!!!" Oh the memories.
The Rangers went ahead 2-0 with five minutes left after Leetch broke up a New Jersey three-on-two and passed to Luc Robitaille along the boards. Robitaille then quickly moved the puck cross-ice to Russ Courtnall as the Rangers streaked in on a three-on-one of their own. Courtnall finished off the play with a great feed to Gretzky, who was waiting at the far post and deposited his sixth goal of the postseason.
The third period was just owned by the Rangers as they played perfect hockey. Defensively they shut New Jersey down. The Devils only got six shots on Richter. Esa Tikkanen finished up the scoring by placing a shot from the red line into an empty net at 19:02.
New Jersey initiated a small battle in the final minute of the game and 115 minutes in penalties resulted. All 10 players on the ice were given misconducts.

Goal Crease Travesty

The Devils just can't be happy about this crazy crease rule. They've already had two goals called back in the past two games, so what are the odds of three in three? Let's just say very good.
The Devils were pressing hard in the Rangers zone midway through the first when Bobby Holik centered the puck to Randy McKay who was creating traffic in front. McKay deflected the puck past Richter with his skate, but the goal was disallowed because McKay's skate was in the top of the crease. So instead of a 1-1 tie, the Rangers hold on to a 1-0 lead. If you're a Devil or just a fan, kinda hard to get happy after that. Even with Gilmour in the lineup, the Devils are struggling to put points on the board...so every goal is golden. For those of you keeping score at home, the Devils have scored four goals in the series and have had three taken away. The crease rule giveth, the crease rule taketh away.

Impressive Performances

NEW YORK
Mike Richter (35 saves): Richter turned in another perfect performance for the Blueshirts, as he took the wind out of the Devils' sails early. New Jersey outshot New York 13-5 in the first period, but Richter turned them all aside to let the Rangers take a 1-0 lead. He also made a key save on Stevens from close range in the second, and then out-waited a bewildered Randy McKay who circled the net without getting a shot away. The news couldn't be worse for the Devils. Mike Richter looks unbeatable.
Wayne Gretzky (1-0-1): Gretzky controlled play when he was on the ice and his passing was on once more. Early in the second period he got the puck in the corner behind the New Jersey defense and made a no-look backhand pass to Sundstrom sneaking in late. Sundstrom didn't score but it was amazing nevertheless. Wayne's goal late in the second was a beauty as well.
Brian Leetch (0-2-2): Leetch was all over the place all night long. He made a great defensive play to halt a Jersey three-on-two and send the Rangers on the three-on-one counter attack on which Gretzky scored.
Luc Robitaille (0-1-1): Luc had a few scoring chances, but his defense was the key. It is safe to say Robitaille was backchecking like a salty peanut all night.
Everyone Else: As a team, the Rangers played a nearly flawless game. No defensive breakdowns, no offensive gambles, no needless penalties. They beat the Devils playing the Devils' brand of hockey.
NEW JERSEY
Martin Brodeur (25 saves): Brodeur played another rock solid game for the Devils, but he got no offensive support. He also got little help on defense as the Devils made more mistakes than a high school student learning quantum physics.

Wacky Game Facts

* New Jersey has only scored once in 18 power-play opportunities this series.
* Mike Richter has only allowed two goals in over ten periods of action. Overall he has stopped 132 of 135 shots thrown at him, and leads all playoff goaltenders with three shutouts.
* Martin Brodeur is 3-10-3 at Madison Square Garden in his career.
* This is the first time the Devils have lost three consecutive games this year. It is also the first time they lost three consecutive games in their last eight playoff series. The last occurance coming against Pittsburgh in 1993.

Injuries

New Jersey: Peter Zezel returned to the lineup. All the Devils made it through the game in one piece.
New York: Unfortunately, the same can't be said about the Rangers. Niklas Sundstrom, a fixture on Gretzky's line all season, will be out indefinitely after a slash by John MacLean broke his arm. Sundstrom had five assists in the playoffs.

Lines

New York: For the first half of the game, Robitaille, Tikkanen and Courtnall alternated between the top two lines. Then for the rest of the game the lines were as below. The Rangers only went with three lines all game. Langdon and Gernander were dressed but saw no action. Churla got one shift in the final minute and picked up a ten minute misconduct for fighting.
The Rangers power-play lines were not set as they changed them constantly. Gretzky saw the majority of the ice time on the power play.
OFFENSE
Robitaille - Gretzky - Sundstrom
Graves - Messier - Tikkanen
Flatley - Eastwood - Courtnall
Churla, Gernander, Langdon
DEFENSE
Leetch - Beukeboom
Samuelsson - Karpovtsev
Driver - Lidster
POWER PLAY
Robitaille - Gretzky - Sundstrom - Leetch - Driver
Graves - Messier - Tikkanen - Leetch - Karpovtsev
SHORT-HANDED
Messier - Graves - Leetch - Beukeboom
Eastwood - Tikkanen - Samuelsson - Karpovtsev
New Jersey: Lemaire put lines together almost randomly early on, but after they fell behind 2-0 he went with four set lines. Denis Pederson and Patrik Elias were scratched from the lineup as Peter Zezel and Jay Pandolfo returned for the Devils.
OFFENSE
MacLean - Gilmour - Pandolfo
Thomas - Holik - McKay
Zelepukin - Rolston - Carpenter
Simpson - Zezel - Guerin
DEFENSE
Stevens - Chambers
Daneyko - Niedermayer
Ellett - Odelein
POWER PLAY
Zelepukin - Holik - Thomas - Niedermayer - Chambers
MacLean - Gilmour - Guerin - Ellett - Odelein
note: Lines were juggled quite often. Brian Rolston even saw some time at the point.
SHORT-HANDED
Carpenter - Zezel - Daneyko - Niedermayer
Gilmour - Pandolfo - Stevens - Chambers
note: John MacLean also teamed up with Gilmour for some penalty kills.

Other Thursday Scores

Detroit won at Anaheim, 3-2 in double overtime:
Detroit completed the sweep of Anaheim at 17:03 of double overtime as Brendan Shanahan scored his first goal of the series. Shanahan was waiting at the top of the crease when a loose puck bounced his way, allowing him to bang it into a vacated net. Mike Vernon made 35 saves; Doug Brown and Nicklas Lidstrom scored Detroit's other goals. Detroit will play the winner of the Colorado-Edmonton series.
Anaheim goalie Mikhail Shtalenkov was remarkable and made 69 saves in the losing effort to set a new Duck record.

Other NHL News

* It was announced today that Peter Forsberg of the Colorado Avalanche will not play in Game 4 of the series due to a mild concussion he suffered late in Game 3. Coach Marc Crawford had this to say: "Peter has a headache. It's not serious, but it's serious enough that as a precaution, I'm not going to allow him to play." Colorado leads Edmonton two games to one in series.
* More bad news for Colorado. Stephane Yelle will also be out of Game 4 with a sprained knee that he sustained Wednesday night.