HOT STUFF: Travis Zajac (left), Adam Larsson and Ilya Kovalchuk celebrate during last night’s 3-1 triumph which vanquished the Flyers in five games and advanced the Devils to the Eastern Conference final, where they will face the Rangers-Capitals winner. Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur said facing the Rangers ‘would be the ultimate.’
PHILADELPHIA — Now, it’s up to the Rangers. The Devils are ready.
“It would be the ultimate,” Martin Brodeur, the longest-running star of this rivalry, said Tuesday night of an Eastern Conference final showdown between the Devils and the Rangers.
It awaits only one more Rangers victory over the Capitals, perhaps Wednesday night. The Devils did their part by eliminating the Flyers in five games with a 3-1 victory last night.
The Devils and Rangers have met five times in past playoffs, but this one would be special, definitive. There hasn’t been a Battle of the Hudson between such powerhouses, which have each knocked off two foes, since they both grew up, the Rangers by ending their 54-year drought in 1994, the Devils by winning their first Cup in 1995.
“For the glory of going to the Stanley Cup it’s an unbelievable matchup for the people that care about our rivalry,” Brodeur said. “And there are a lot of people who care about our rivalry.
“It would be the ultimate.”
The Devils have only won only one of their Battles of the Hudson, their 2006 sweep. The Rangers won in 1992, 1994, 1997 and 2008.
This year, the Rangers won four of six in a regular-season series that brewed bitterness.
“You saw some of the battles we had, at the drop of the puck at Madison Square Garden. There’s a big rivalry there. The War of Words with the coaches?” Brodeur said.
“If we do play them, the buildup would be pretty tremendous.”
First, the Rangers have to get there.
In these playoffs, particularly this romp over the Flyers, the Devils have become the team no one should want any part of. They’re 14-4 in their last 18 games going back to the regular season. The Rangers and Caps can’t avoid them now.
The Devils demolished the favored Flyers in five games, sealing their first trip to the conference final since 2003.
The Devils outscored Philly 18-11, as they spotted the Flyers the overtime opener, then won four straight, sandwiching victories in Philadelphia around two triumphs in Newark.
The series turned when the Devils, after losing the opener, came back with four straight goals in the third period of Game 2. Alexei Ponikarovsky put them in front to stay with a Game 3 OT winner, and Dainius Zubrus scored the winner and empty-netter in Game 4.
Last night, they battled through too-late Flyers thuggery and took advantage of two major breaks, as well as the absence of Claude Giroux, the playoffs’ leading scorer, suspended last night for a head-hit on Zubrus on Sunday.
The evening opened with boards and brains rattling, without penalty. Devils defenseman Anton Volchenkov launched the frolics by launching himself, shoulder into head, at Braydon Schenn at the end boards, boarding or interference at least, but disregarded by referees Stephen Walkom and Eric Furlatt.
Within two minutes, Sean Couturier and Zac Rinaldo gave Volchenkov a flying sandwich, and Volchenkov examined the ice for a few minutes before heading to the dressing room. Volchenkov returned before the first period was done.
Energized by the rough stuff, the Flyers took the lead 7:18 into play. Danny Briere came away with the puck behind the net from Mark Fayne and Travis Zajac, emerging around the left wing post. He passed across the goalmouth for Schenn, who had two tries before Max Talbot shove his fourth under Brodeur.
Flyers coach Peter Laviolette was furious over a missed offside when the Devils tied the score 2:09 later. Ponikarovsky lifted his left leg, on the line, with his right inside, to allow Adam Henrique to carry in, and play continued. From the left point Bryce Salvador sent a wrister netward, which Flyer Wayne Simmonds deflected up and over Ilya Bryzgalov’s waffle, in off the crossbar.
Salvador stands 2-4-6 in 12 playoff games, after going 0-9-9 in all 82 games this season.
Bryzgalov then committed a gaffe that won’t soon be forgotten. From his own crease, he fired the puck directly off the stick of the on-rushing David Clarkson, less than 10 feet away, and it caromed back between his legs and in at 12:45 of the first.
After a scoreless second, in which Brodeur scrambled and hung on narrowly, Ilya Kovalchuk gave the Devils insurance 5:00 into the third, his power play slap eluding Bryzgalov’s glove for his fifth of postseason.
Ryan Carter returned to the Devils lineup after sitting out Game 4 with suspected food poisoning … The Devils remained unbeaten with a 3-1 series lead, now 10-0 in such circumstances. They have won in five seven times, six twice and seven once.