You never would have known from watching that this Battle of the Hudson was a low-stakes match — with Rangers all but assured of the East’s first wild-card spot and the Devils on the precipice of a fifth straight playoff miss with fewer than three weeks remaining on the schedule.
For this one in Newark raged as if the combatants included Mark Messier, Alex Kovalev and Brian Leetch on one side and Scott Stevens, Johnny MacLean and Martin Brodeur on the other.
“No doubt there was physicality and a little bit of bad blood out there,” coach Alain Vigneault said after the Blueshirts were beaten 3-2 on Wednesday when Joseph Blandisi converted a two-on-one backhand off a feed from John Quenneville at 4:05 of a breathtaking overtime — which did not include a single stop of play. “That’s hockey.”
The Rangers had their chances to end it before two of the young guns in a Devils’ lineup, which featured seven players who had spent significant portions of the season in the AHL, took advantage of Ryan McDonagh’s shot that missed the net and ricocheted off the boards.
Oh, how the Rangers had their chances to end it in the three-on-three, with both Kevin Hayes and Michael Grabner right at the doorstep on a mad scramble just before it went the other way. And, oh, how they had chances to salt it away in a third period in which they outshot New Jersey 14-1 through the first 11:40 and 17-9 overall, only to be stymied by Cory Schneider and their own inability to finish off several goalmouth scrambles.
“It was a pretty solid 60, and then of course the overtime, but when you can’t put in the puck when it’s on the line, I guess maybe that it’s just not your night,” said Antti Raanta, who made his fair share of big-time saves as well, but could not make the one on Blandisi as he swept across left to right. “There was a lot of emotion and energy, you could feel that, but it’s funny: Sometimes when you play a team that’s out of the playoffs, they’ll try different things and it’s a little bit of a different feel.”
The defeat left the Rangers with just five wins in their past 12 games (5-5-2), throughout which they have been outscored by an aggregate 32-29 but the point earned by getting into overtime reduces the team’s magic number to seven to clinch a seventh straight playoff berth and 11th in the 12 years of the hard-cap era. The victory for the Devils, their second in their past 14 matches (2-10-2), maintained the team’s tragic number for elimination at five points.
Lucky Seven for the Blueshirts represents a combination of points they gain and points the ninth-place Islanders lose. And guess who is coming to Broadway dinner at the Garden on Wednesday? Yes sir, the Brooklyns.
“It’s the Islanders,” Vigneault said when asked the significance of this upcoming contest. “This is New York.”
This one in New Jersey started slowly, bwith scoring chances few and far between for either side. But the rivalry flared in the second that featured both rushes through wide-open spaces and hand-to-hand combat. Including a brawl in which Myles Wood slugged it out with Nick Holden and Jimmy Vesey traded punches with Blake Coleman at 19:43 of the period after the New York defenseman had ridden Wood into the stanchion at his team’s bench.
“He didn’t like the hit,” Vigneault said of Wood, who picked up an instigator. “He did what he thought was appropriate.”
The Devils took a 1-0 lead at 15:16 of the second when Quenneville, left wide open in the left flat on a New Jersey power play, got the first goal of his NHL career. The Blueshirts tied it when Oscar Lindberg got his fifth in 15 games and 16:53 before Taylor Hall’s score from the left at 18:22 sent the Devils into the intermission up 2-1.
But the Rangers then took advantage of the additional Wood minor to tie it when Rick Nash, again dominant in every phase, tied it on a backhand along the ice through the five-hole with his back to the net to end a nine-game scoring drought.
“That’s why I’m here,” Nash said. “To score.”
So it is straightaway onto the Garden and the Battle of New York for what also should be a doozy.
“There was a playoff atmosphere and playoff feel to this one,” Nash said. “I’m sure it will be even more so tomorrow.”