Sports

DEVILS STILL FEAR RANGERS

“Everybody in our room would be scared . . . to see [the Rangers] in the playoffs.”BRIAN ROLSTON

Are the Devils ready? Ready to rid themselves of their last ghost?

Not quite.

They have not lost to the Rangers since the 1997 playoffs, when they made it 0-for-3 against the New Yorkers in postseason.

They have faced them 10 times since without losing, 8-0-2, winning 5-2 last night at the Garden, as convincingly as these blood feuds get.

Still, no thanks.

“Everybody in our room would be scared,” Brian Rolston said. “We’re playing well against them, but there’s not one guy in our lockerroom who would like to see them in the playoffs.”

With an inferiority complex like that, it’s going to take a superhuman series to end the Rangers’ ultimate right to brag. They’ve seen too much Matteau, too much Messier messing up Gilmour, to think everything would work according to form.

Still, they are building a little confidence. Ten in a row should.

“The Rangers bring out the best in us,” Lyle Odelein said. “If we played 82 games the way we play against them, we’d have a much better record than we have now.’

The Devils didn’t seem to miss many beats without Dave Andreychuk, sidelined two months with a broken ankle suffered in Tuesday’s 3-3 tie with San Jose. Robbie Ftorek shuffled his forwards completely, essentially eliminating an obvious checking line.

“There’s always a team you play well against, and the guys seem to play well against this team this year,” Ftorek said. “This was a good time for this game.’

For the third time this season, the Devils avoided their first three-game winless streak of the season, and the victory gave them 49 points, tops in the East.

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Scott Stevens seemed to channel some of the turmoil he has faced in the past week, the subject of a tampering case, followed with low taunts at a recovering alcohol abuser.

“Maybe I can take a low profile now,” Stevens said.

Stevens won’t face NHL discipline for allegedly calling Sharks forward Brantt Myhres a “drunk,’ and suggesting he go “have another beer,” before the third period of Tuesday’s 3-3 tie at the Meadowlands. The league is taking the “sticks and stones,” approach to this incident, which enraged the Sharks. Myhres has twice undergone alcohol rehab. . .Petr Sykora sat out second straight from food poisoning. . .Devs are 7-1-1 in nine on road.