Some home-ice advantage.
The Devils stole home ice away from the Rangers after Wednesday’s 3-2 victory at the Garden. But it wasn’t much of an advantage in yesterday’s 3-0 Game 3 loss in front of a surprisingly pro-Devils crowd.
New Jersey launched their “No Blue” campaign earlier in the week to try and weed out Rangers fans from acquiring tickets to the game, and the Prudential Center had just around 10-15 percent Rangers fans, by far the smallest amount for any Devils-Rangers game since moving into the building in 2007.
But after Martin Brodeur allowed third period goals to Dan Girardi and Chris Kreider in a span of 1:57, the fans who were dressed in Blue serenaded Brodeur with the “Maarty” taunts he so often hears at Madison Square Garden. The goalie said it’s nothing new, though he did seem a bit frustrated by it.
“It’s momentum off the way we play which dictates how our crowd is going to be in our building, because there are a lot of Rangers fans,” Brodeur said after the game. “They’re the ones with the money. They are sitting right beside us, too. But it is not new for us.”
Brodeur was brilliant except for that two-minute stretch to start the third period. He had 19 saves, half of which were 1995-like, when he was in his prime. The Devils fans in attendance gave him cheers of “Mar-ty!” on many occasions, including stopping Ryan Callahan from the left side, who had an open net four minutes into the second period to keep the game scoreless.
“It’s been like that for a few years,” Brodeur said. “When we swept them a few years ago, our building was unbelievable even though half of them were Rangers fans. We just have to play well and give them a reason to cheer for us. It came down to a bounce here a bounce there in the third.”
The Devils had won four home games in a row before Henrik Lundqvist shut them out for the second time in three games. And the buzz generated by the Rangers contingent was evident throughout the third period as soon as the Blueshirts took the lead. With the game in hand in the final minute, the crowd chanted “Hen-rik!” as Lundqvist stopped all 36 Devils shots he faced.
Brodeur kept the Devils in the game, but the team was unable to score, going 0-for-5 on the power play. Perhaps he should have played winger, since he has two career goals.
“I try to do my job for the team. I can’t do anything about the way [Lundqvist] is playing. So for me it is trying to be solid and keep us in the game and giving us a chance to win,” Brodeur said.
On Lundqvist, who had 10 saves in the third period, Brodeur said: “Hopefully he is going to have an off night eventually.”