NEW YORK -- It's not how you start, it's how you finish, and in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, the New Jersey Devils did both.
Ryan Carter scored off a Stephen Gionta pass from the corner with 4:24 left in the third period, snapping a tie after the New York Rangers had come back from a three-goal deficit. Zach Parise's empty-net goal with 32 seconds left emptied Madison Square Garden and gave the Devils a 5-3 victory and a 3-2 lead in the series.
The New Jersey Devils and Stephen Gionta are a win away from the Stanley Cup finals. (AP Photo)
The Devils' win came 18 years to the day after their pivotal Game 5 victory at Madison Square Garden in the 1994 Eastern Conference finals. Mark Messier's hat trick in Game 6 and Stephane Matteau's double-overtime goal in Game 7 wound up sending New York to the Stanley Cup finals, where they won their first championship since 1940.
More recently, the Rangers trailed the Ottawa Senators 3-2 in the first round of this year's playoffs. New York is 3-0 when facing elimination this year, and will put that record on the line in Newark on Friday night.
Hanrik Lundqvist stopped 12 shots, while Martin Brodeur made 25 saves for the win.
The Rangers spent the day between Games 4 and 5 emphasizing the need for a better start, as the Devils had owned the first period of every game in the series. New Jersey, of course, had no plans to surrender its stranglehold on auspicious beginnings, and 2:43 into Game 5, New York found itself behind.
A point shot by Mark Fayne hit Lundqvist's pad, and as the puck skittered to the front of the crease, the only person there to play it was Stephen Gionta, who backhanded in his third goal of the playoffs.
It was one goal, and perhaps against the flow of play in the first few minutes, but instead of attacking with renewed vigor, the Rangers surrendered another goal 90 seconds later. This time, it was a double deflection, as Adam Henrique's shot hit Patrik Elias' stick, then Artem Anisimov's skate, and trickled past Lundqvist to bring Madison Square Garden to utter silence.
Down 2-0, the Rangers did make a concerted effort to push forward, but when Ryan McDonagh carrried the puck into the Devils' zone, he got flattened by Bryce Salvador, who started a rush the other way. Zach Parise chipped ahead for Travis Zajac, who simply let fly with a shot from the right side. It got cleanly past Lundqvist, and after only 9:49, New York found itself in a 3-0 abyss.
A boarding penalty on Fayne 29 seconds later did nothing to reverse the momentum, but the Rangers did start their fightback before the first period ended. As Marek Zidlicky tried to play the puck into the New York zone, Derek Stepan knocked it down and passed quickly to Ruslan Fedotenko, who made a perfect lead pass for Brandon Prust, back in the Rangers' lineup after serving a one-game suspension for an elbow to Anton Volchenkov's head in Game 3.
Prust raced into the New Jersey zone, and although Zidlicky sprinted back to try to break up the play, the gritty New York winger managed to release his backhand attempt. His first goal of the playoffs gave the Rangers a lifeline with 4:19 left in the first period.
New York then got the second period off to a near-perfect start, with Artem Anisimov going to the corner to play the puck toward the crease. There, it hit Ryan Callahan's skate, and when a video review confirmed that there was no kicking motion, it was a 3-2 game, 32 seconds into the second period.
Just over three minutes later, Callahan briefly thought he had tied the game on a backhand rebound of a Brad Richards power-play drive, but the New York captain's attempt somehow hit both goalposts, and New Jersey breathed a deep sigh of relief.
The Rangers continued pressing, and had an 11-5 advantage in shots on goal in the second period, but could not find a way to squeeze another puck past Brodeur for an equalizer. A Devils bid for insurance also went wanting, as Lundqvist denied Zidlicky from close range six seconds before the second intermission.
That save by Lundqvist loomed all the larger 17 seconds into the third period when Brodeur bobbled his way into the tying goal. As the puck came down the ice, the future Hall of Famer tried to play it, but had to abandon that plan when the puck crossed into the forbidden zone in the corner -- an area Brodeur ruled until the NHL created the trapezoid to cut down on the amount goaltenders could play the puck. That left Marian Gaborik alone in a dangerous spot, and Gaborik shot off the seat of Brodeur's pants. Brodeur scrambled back to try to cover up as the puck hit the post, but instead wound up kicking in the tying goal as Derek Stepan gave him a nudge in the pads with his stick.
Gaborik was credited with the goal, his first of the series, and while it was far from a classic snipe by the right wing who scored 41 goals in the regular season, he was not about to complain about style points.
The red light went on at the other end of the ice moments later, but the Devils' apparent reclamation of the lead was nullified as the puck had been played with a high stick. Then, midway through the third period, Brad Richards nearly snapped the tie, only to have Lundqvist make one of his best saves of the night on what would have been an own-goal for the ages.
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