If they didn’t before, the Rangers believe now. They believe they can make up those three measly points. They believe they can make the playoffs.
“You just gotta believe,” Brandon Dubinsky declared, perhaps unknowingly invoking Tug McGraw and the 1973 Mets.
Blue faith was both rewarded and fortified last night. Only 17 seconds from a regulation loss that would have been a nail in their coffin, they left Newark as 4-3 winners in a shootout over the Devils.
Henrik Lundqvist made Erik Christensen’s opening snapper stand up in the shootout, as they combined to inject new life into their season. But it was captain Chris Drury who kept that quest alive, averting defeat with 16.5 seconds left in the third.
“Probably the biggest goal of the season,” Dubinsky proclaimed. “If we don’t win that game . . .”
But they did, one night after their romp over the Islanders, against a team that wants them to miss the playoffs. Now they trail the game-in-hand Bruins by those three points, with 16 left on their table.
So hope becomes belief.
“For sure,” Drury said. “We just want to keep on playing better.”
They went home winners after Christensen’s shootout goal was verified by video review, initially waved off, and Lundqvist thwarted Zach Parise and Patrik Elias, while Travis Zajac fired wide. Coach Jacques Lemaire did not use Ilya Kovalchuk.
“If I was doing it again, maybe he would have been first, because the other three didn’t score,” Lemaire said, defusing second-guessing.
The shootout loss prevented the Devils from clinching their 13th straight playoff berth, although they have nine games left to notch one point, or see Atlanta miss one.
Regulation victory vanished on Drury’s goal, after Lundqvist was on the bench for an extra skater — Drury. When the Devils iced the puck in the final minute, Rangers coach John Tortorella used his timeout, and Drury against Elias on the draw. Drury won the faceoff, Michael Del Zotto put the puck at the end boards, Christensen threw a behind-the-back pass around Colin White to Drury at the right edge of the crease. One whack meant one point, and hope.
“He made a nice play. It [stinks],” White said of Christensen.
The Devils never trailed until the shootout, taking and giving back the lead three times. Kovalchuk’s 38th — seventh as a Devil — opened the scoring at 5:21 of the first, rebounding Brian Rolston’s blast. Dubinsky answered at 7:32 of the second on the Rangers’ first power play, his left circle wrister going in off Paul Martin and Martin Skoula.
Patrik Elias gave the Devils their second lead at 3:53 of the third, scoring his 14th from the slot after Dainius Zubrus retrieved his own dump and reversed with David Clarkson for the setup. Artem Ansimov squared things again at 9:40 with his 12th, with Andy Greene caught up-ice. Brandon Prust hopped around Bryce Salvador in the left corner and found Ansimov free in front. Ansimov held on as Martin Brodeur dropped, and scored from deep on the right side.
Jamie Langenbrunner put Jersey on top again at 12:37 with a right circle slap on a semibreakaway, beating Lundqvist’s waffle after Elias and Martin Skoula were thwarted on solo chances.
A Devils victory seemed certain, until Drury made certain it wasn’t. And in the process, made all things seem possible again for the Rangers.
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The Rangers lost Ryan Callahan to a reinjured right knee in after he was hit by Rob Niedermayer in the second period. . . . An apparent Zach Parise goal was disallowed as a kick-in at 10:16 of the second. . . . Before the opening draws of each period, refs warned Sean Avery and David Clarkson against giving fans a little excitement right off the bat. . . . Olli Jokinen played a grand total of 1:53 in first period, and went minus-1 in that span, on-ice for Kovalchuk’s opening goal.
Brian Boyle sat out second straight with undisclosed injury, while Aaron Voros was scratched for Rangers. . . . Rod Pelley, Mark Fraser, Vladimir Zharkov, Pierre-Luc Leblond and Anssi Salmela were Devils’ scratches, as Jay Pandolfo and Andrew Peters joined lineup. . . . Peters landed final haymaker after absorbing several fists from Jody Shelley in first period bout.