Dainius Zubrus and Zach Parise Lift Devils to 4-2 Win Over Rangers
Zubrus’ first goal this season made a winner of Martin Brodeur, who had never beaten Rangers counterpart Henrik Lundqvist in regulation on the road in the regular season. Brodeur made 29 saves to push the Devils to 4-0 away from home.
Ryan Callahan had a breakaway chance with two minutes left thwarted from behind by diving Devils defenseman Colin White.
Brodeur, the NHL’s winningest goalie with 562 victories, had an anxious moment shortly before Zubrus snapped the 2-2 tie. Marian Gaborik stole the puck from Brodeur behind the net, but couldn’t get it to a teammate for a shot at the vacated net.
Parise and Nicklas Bergfors gave the Devils a 2-0 lead in the first, but Gaborik and Ales Kotalik answered in the second for New York (7-3), which has lost two straight following a seven-game winning streak. Lundqvist made 21 saves.
Parise added an empty-net goal with 40.2 seconds left.
The Rangers gave up seven of the final eight goals in a 7-3 home loss to San Jose on Monday and quickly fell into another hole against New Jersey. They broke out of their doldrums in the second period with the two that got them even.
Gaborik, coming off his first pointless game of the season, cut the Rangers’ deficit to 2-1 at 1:47. With Devils defenseman Mike Mottau off for high-sticking, Gaborik squeezed a shot from the top of the left circle through a screen and past Brodeur for his seventh goal just seven seconds into the power play.
After a couple of near New York breakaways were busted up by the Devils’ defense, the Rangers turned a bailout save by Lundqvist into the tying goal.
Marc Staal turned over the puck in the New York end and got twisted around as a pass found Zubrus alone with a clean shot at the net. Zubrus wound up for a hard drive that Lundqvist kicked out with his left pad, right to teammate Dan Girardi.
Girardi hit Kotalik with a pass streaking up the middle and alone on Brodeur. With a snap of his wrist, Kotalik beat him gloveside at 14:25 for his fourth goal.
Parise opened the scoring with a breakaway goal, created by a quick tap pass at center ice by captain Jamie Langenbrunner. Parise snapped a shot over Lundqvist’s glove at 6:11 for his fourth of the season. Parise, who scored 45 times last season, has four goals in three games after netting only one in New Jersey’s first five.
Bergfors pushed the lead to 2-0 with 4:50 left in the first, redirecting David Clarkson‘s shot past Lundqvist for his first of the season and second in the NHL.
Notes
The Devils are 4-0 on the road for the first time since 1989. … Rangers enforcer Donald Brashear sat out due to soreness. He was replaced by Aaron Voros. … Begfors, who has played 17 NHL games, scored his other goal on Nov. 1, 2008, against Atlanta. … Brodeur improved to 2-8-2 against Lundqvist in the regular season at Madison Square Garden. The other victory came in a shootout on Feb. 22, 2007. … The Rangers fell to 51-28-20-1 in 100 games vs. New Jersey at MSG. … Counting the third period on Monday and the first period vs. New Jersey, Lundqvist allowed four goals on 20 shots.