The Eastern Conference Final between the Devils and rival Rangers is turning out to be exactly what everyone thought.
Hard hitting. Tight checking. Low scoring.
Indeed, as it’s played under the microscope of the New York metropolitan area media, this has been hockey with an edge … but not so edgy as to cross the line.
The two games at Madison Square Garden were similar. They were tied after two periods, and decided in the third. The Rangers won the first with three goals in the last period and the Devils took the second, 3-2, on Wednesday night on a great deflection by David Clarkson.
The best-of-7 series for the right to go to the Stanley Cup Final now moves to Prudential Center in New Jersey for games on Saturday afternoon and Monday night.
“I think it’s everything that we were anticipating really from the hockey standpoint,” Devils captain Zach Parise said Thursday. “We expected tight games. We expected not a lot of room out there from either team, and games down to the wire. I guess from everything else surrounding it, it’s definitely more media coverage than we’ve ever seen.
“So that part is a little different than the attention that it’s getting, that the series is getting. That’s a little different. But I think that’s what you kind of have to expect when you’re still playing at this time of the year.”
With two days off before Game 3, both teams elected to rest on Thursday.
“Yeah, I said before, I don’t think you can get too much rest this time of year,” Devils coach Peter DeBoer said in a conference call. “I think both teams are in the same boat. We start going every other day again next week through the end of the series. So I think the break comes at the right time. Everyone can regroup, and we can get ready for a home game.”
What the Devils did very well in Game 2 was forecheck. A key cog in their Round 2 win over Philadelphia, the forecheck created some chances and also opened lanes for the defensemen to shoot at Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. All along, Devils forwards were able to get in front of Lundqvist.
It paid off, as Carter and Clarkson scored on deflections.
“When we’re playing well, that’s what we’re doing,” Parise said. “It’s a challenge against the Rangers because that’s what they’ve been known for this year is outworking their opponents and kind of owning the pucks down low and along the boards.
“We have to do a really good job of doing that if we want to beat these guys this series. Because that’s the part that they’re really good at.”