NEWARK, N.J. — Henrik Lundqvist made a season-high 43 saves and the New York Rangers beat New Jersey 3-1 on Wednesday night, handing the struggling Devils their sixth straight loss and leaving them winless since Jacques Lemaire took over as coach last week.
Defenseman Michal Rozsival scored the winner on a second-period shot that deflected off Devils defenseman Andy Greene.
Brian Boyle and Brandon Dubinsky also scored for New York, which gave up a season-high 44 shots just two nights after recording a season-high 52 shots in a big win over the Islanders.
Travis Zajac scored for the Devils, who played their best game since Lemaire replaced John MacLean three games ago.
However, the NHL’s lowest scoring team (62 goals) was denied time and time again by Lundqvist in losing for the 11th time in 12 games this month. The six-game losing streak is a season high for New Jersey.
Lemaire criticized the Devils before the game for not being in shape and it showed in the third period when New Jersey managed seven shots in the final period despite having two power plays.
Lundqvist faced only a couple of serious threats in the final 20 minutes with the best coming on a deflection down low by Jamie Langenbrunner and another on Ilya Kovalchuk’s power-play slap shot.
Dubinsky iced the game with an empty-net goal with 6 seconds to play.
The Rangers are 3-0 against the Devils this season, outscoring them 8-2. Since the start of the 2007-08 season, New Jersey has lost 20 of 28 meetings with New York.
Despite being outshot 36-17 in the first two periods, the Rangers held a 2-1 lead on goals by Boyle and Rozsival.
Rozsival put the Rangers ahead with less than 7 minutes left in the second period on a fluke goal. Dubinsky centered the puck from behind the net and Rozsival’s shot from the top of the right circle hit off the arm of Greene and deflected past Brodeur.
Boyle, who had never scored more than four goals in any of his first three NHL season, got his 14th just 47 seconds after Zajac gave the Devils a 1-0 lead at 6:31. Boyle took a pass in the left circle from Ruslan Fedotenko and scored on a shot that went off Brodeur’s glove.
The Devils’ goal came after they peppered Lundqvist with a flurry of shots. The goalie stopped every one until Zajac swatted the rebound of Mattias Tedenby’s shot into the net.
Tedenby had a chance to tie it at 2 less than a minute after Rozsival scored, but Lundqvist stopped his breakaway attempt, twice glancing over his shoulder to make sure the puck wasn’t in the net.
NOTES: Devils D Anton Volchenkov nailed Dubinsky near the blue line early in the game. … Boyle and Dainius Zubrus had a good fight in second period. … Devils placed veteran Brian Rolston on re-entry waivers. … Rangers D Michael Del Zotto missed his third straight because of a groin injury. … The game was the start of the Rangers’ three-game trip.
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