NEW YORK — Dougie Hamilton scored at 11:36 of overtime to give the Devils a 2-1 victory over the Rangers Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in Game 3 of the teams’ first-round playoff series. The victory got the Devils back in the series after they had lost the first two games in Newark, both by scores of 5-1.
New Jersey now trails the best-of-seven series, two games to one, with Game 4 scheduled for Monday night again at the Garden. In NHL history, teams winning Game 3 in a best-of-seven series after losing the first two games have won 50 of 193 such series (25.9%). However, teams that lost the first two games at home and won Game 3 on the road have won 19 of 50 series (38%). One of those teams was Tampa Bay, in the Eastern Conference final last season, against the Rangers.
Devils coach Lindy Ruff, with his team in a 2-0 hole after having lost both games in Prudential Center, changed goaltenders, starting 22-year-old rookie Akira Schmid instead of Vitek Vanecek. Ruff also made two lineup changes, inserting forward Curtis Lazar for his first action of the series, and returning defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler, after sitting him out in favor of ex-Ranger Brendan Smith in Game 2.
Schmid made 35 saves, the biggest probably coming on a shot by Vladimir Tarasenko with 14 minutes remaining in the first overtime.
With the series shifting to the Garden, the Rangers hoped to get off to a fast start after a rousing rendition of the National Anthem by baritone John Brancy. But Patrick Kane took a hooking penalty 22 seconds in, which allowed the Devils to get a chance to get off to a good start instead.
The Rangers killed the penalty, though, and soon had their own power play, courtesy of a Michael McLeod boarding penalty against Ryan Lindgren. That allowed them to get some sustained offensive zone time and they started peppering Schmid, with all of 24 NHL games on his resume, with shots.
But Schmid stood strong, and the period ended up scoreless, with the Devils outshooting the Rangers 12-11.
The Rangers took the lead at 3:39 of the second period, when Chris Kreider scored his fifth goal of the series, and his first at even strength. Kane started the play when he knocked the puck off Ondrej Palat’s stick just inside the Rangers’ blue line, nudging it forward to Mika Zibanejad, who passed it to Kreider driving up the left side. Kreider beat Schmid with a wrist shot above his shoulder to open the scoring.
But the game would get a little chippy in the middle of the period, and that ultimately led to Jack Hughes tying the game on a power play goal at 10:37. It all started when the Devils’ Timo Meier, who was something of a thorn in the Rangers’ side the entire night, was pushed down onto the ice and into the Rangers’ net, by Braden Schneider. Igor Shesterkin, who fell down on his backside, started punching Meier, who lay in the goalmouth, and Schneider started pushing and shoving Meier.
Meanwhile, play had continued and the puck had gone down into the Devils’ zone, where suddenly, a skirmish broke out along the boards, with Artemi Panarin getting into a shoving match with 6-6, 230-pound Devils defenseman Kevin Bahl. No punches were thrown, and the officials got in between the players before any damage could be done.
But both players were given roughing penalties, as was Vladimir Tarasenko, which meant the Devils were on the power play. And Hughes beat Shesterkin with a wrist shot from just above the faceoff dot. Palat was in front of Shesterkin, screening him, as Hughes got his second goal of the series.
After connecting four times in 10 tries over the first two games, the Rangers power play seemed to struggle for the first time in the series. After the first opportunity, the power play seemed to get less and less potent as the game went on, and by the time they failed on the fourth chance, late in the second period, the players seemed to start to show signs of frustration.
