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Anything would’ve been an improvement over the last time the Rangers faced the Devils, but this one was a much-needed bounce-back victory after a couple of weighing losses.
The Rangers came to Prudential Center and got the job done against the bottom-feeding Devils on Tuesday, scoring two power-play goals on the way to a 3-1 win in their fourth-to-last road game of the regular season.
With the Penguins’ loss to the Avalanche, the Rangers sunk their teeth even further into second place in the Metropolitan Division with a four-point lead and four more wins than Pittsburgh.
“We could probably be better in the [final] two periods,” said Ryan Strome, who returned to the Rangers’ lineup after a four-game absence with an undisclosed lower-body injury. “But at this time in the season, we got to find different ways to win. Whether it’s going to be the power play, goaltending or penalty killing, yeah we’d like to have 40 shots a game, but last few games we had 40 and we lost. It’s just about finding a way at this point.”
Strome made it a 1-1 game with a power-play goal at 11:07 of the first period in his return. The Rangers’ top man-advantage unit seemingly returned to its peak form as well, going 2-for-3 on the night. Coincidence? Probably not.
The power-play heroics in the opening 20 minutes kept the Rangers ahead through the second period, in which they posted just a single shot on goal as the Devils put up six on goalie Alexandar Georgiev, who ultimately finished with 21 saves in his 12th win of the season.
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“Obviously, you don’t want to see that with your team, with the high-powered team that we’ve got that can create chances,” head coach Gerard Gallant said. “But there was nothing going on. They didn’t have many chances in that second period, either. It was just sort of one of those periods where it was wishy-washy and a lot of play in the neutral zone.”
But Justin Braun, skating in just his third game with the Rangers, provided an insurance goal just under four minutes into the third period. His long shot from the top of the zone made it a two-goal game. However, it was his defensive partner, Braden Schneider, who sparked the Rangers earlier in the night.
Schneider leveled the Devils’ Jesper Boqvist onto his behind with a clean hit in the neutral zone and Yegor Sharangovich pounced on the rookie defenseman. It was Sharangovich’s mistake, because Schneider pummeled the Devils winger and drew blood in his first NHL fight.
“Guys have been calling him Baby [Jacob] Trouba,” Chris Kreider said of Schneider.
After Strome evened the score on Sharangovich’s instigator penalty and game misconduct, the Devils’ Pavel Zacha handed the Rangers another power play when he was called for holding Adam Fox.
Kreider’s sharp-angled deflection of a pass from Artemi Panarin put the Rangers up 2-1 at 17:57. The power-play goal was Kreider’s 25th of the season, which surpassed Jaromir Jagr to set a new Rangers record, as well as his 10th game-winning goal of the season, which established another Rangers record.
“I think it’s just a testament to our power play,” Kreider said. “The guys that I’m playing with are amazing — so many weapons.”
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