NY RANGERS 4, NJ DEVILS 2
The Rangers and Devils literally spilled the bad blood between them onto the Garden ice Monday night, so much so that arena workers had to delay the game to scrape a red pool from the surface three seconds into the Atlantic Division clash.
Then the Blueshirts earned a rousing 4-2 win over their rivals from across the Hudson, clinching a playoff spot, snapping a two-game losing streak and improving their conference lead over the Penguins to three points with 10 to play, though idle Pittsburgh now has a game in hand.
Prior to the opening faceoff, Rangers coach John Tortorella was caught on NBC cameras cursing out Devils coach Peter DeBoer across the benches. At the whistle, six players engaged in three simultaneous fights, with Rangers rookie Stu Bickel opening a huge gash on Ryan Carter's nose that colored this game dark red from the start.
The line of Ryan Callahan, Brandon Dubinsky and Derek Stepan carried the Blueshirts (45-20-7, 97 points) at the start and the finish. Dubinsky opened scoring 1:11 into the first period, and with a 3-2 lead and 1:10 to play, Derek Stepan redirected in Dubinsky's shot off a Carl Hagelin forecheck just as a late power play expired. Callahan had two assists and drew the penalty on Jacob Josefson that gave New York the late man advantage.
The Devils (41-27-5, 87 points) matched two second-period Rangers goals with two of their own, from Patrik Elias and Petr Sykora on an uncharacteristically soft short-side goal allowed by Henrik Lundqvist with 8:52 remaining in the second period to make it 3-2.
The Devils' Martin Brodeur, however, was even shakier. He allowed a Dan Girardi wrister through that made it 2-0 at the start of the second period. Then Mats Zuccarello scored for the second straight game, snapping an 0-for-9 drought on the power play to make it 3-1 midway through the second just minutes before Sykora's score.
The Rangers carried the 3-2 lead into the third period and held the Devils without a shot in the third for 9:38, then had the Garden rocking when Stepan made his high redirection of Dubinsky's shot.
The emotion had carried over from as early as Sunday afternoon, where at Devils practice, DeBoer had told reporters he thinks "there's a genuine dislike" between the Rangers and Devils. The Jersey coach assembled his goon line for the start of Monday night's game, to which Tortorella responded by screaming across the benches before starting a few brawlers of his own.
In three simultaneous fights, the Blueshirts' Mike Rupp took on Eric Boulton, Brandon Prust dueled with Cam Janssen, and Bickel pummeled Carter, hitting him once more as he tackled the Devils forward and opened a huge cut on Carter's nose that colored the ice a dark red.
The fisticuffs were far and away more violent and emotionally charged than those that opened their game on Feb. 7 at the Garden, when the Devils' Boulton and Janssen dueld with Rupp and Prust just two seconds into the match.
The Rangers carried the momentum most of the night and finished the season 3-2-1 against New Jersey.
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