Rangers, Devils start with line brawl, 8 players ejected
NEW YORK 4 NEW JERSEY 3
NEW YORK — Chris Kreider scored a power-play goal late in the third period and the New York Rangers rallied to beat the New Jersey Devils 4-3 on Wednesday night in a game that started with a 10-player brawl.
Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere each had a goal and an assist, and Kaapo Kakko also scored for the NHL-leading Rangers. Igor Shesterkin finished with 17 saves.
“It’s huge,” Kreider said of his team’s 51st win this season. “Division games are important. You obviously saw the emotion.”
Nico Hischier, Ondrej Palat and Brendan Smith scored in the second period for the Devils, and Kaapo Kahkonen stopped 37 shots. New Jersey has lost three straight and remained six points behind Washington for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.
“The guys stood up for each other,” said Devils leading scorer Jesper Bratt who had two assists. “It’s tough. We played a great game as a whole considering the situation we were in.”
Trailing 3-2 after 40 minutes, the Rangers tied it on Kakko’s 13th goal of the season at 5:32 of the third period. Kreider then put the Rangers back ahead as he deflected Adam Fox’s shot from the point past Kahkonen with 4:57 remaining for his 36th.
Panarin also assisted on Kreider’s goal, giving him a team-high 110 points.
Palat got the Devils on the scoreboard at 2:11 of the second with his 10th, and Smith got his fourth at 9:53 to tie it 2-2. Hischier put New Jersey ahead with his 25th with 8:36 remaining in the middle period.
The game got off to a physical start as all 10 skaters on the ice got into brawls right off the opening faceoff. Eight players were ejected after receiving game misconducts two seconds into the game, forcing both teams to play with four fewer skaters the rest of the way.
“After a situation like that, the rest of the team has to pick up a lot of slack and a lot of minutes” said Devils forward Kurtis MacDermid, who had a prolonged bout with Rangers rookie Matt Rempe at centre ice.
Head coaches Peter Laviolette of the Rangers and New Jersey’s Travis Green were also yelling at each other from their respective benches.