Devils prove they won’t go down without a fight
NEWARK » The Devils weren’t going down without a fight.
In the first playoff game at the Prudential Center since June 6, 2012, the Devils used a late third period goal by Stefan Noesen and two late emptynetters to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 5-2, and cut their best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal series deficit to 2-1 heading into Wednesday’s pivotal Game 4.
The game featured a whopping 132 penalty minutes, including 102 on the same sequence with 23 seconds left when a line brawl nearly broke out, with all ten players on the ice being given 10-minute misconducts.
“I think as the series goes on, cooler heads are going to prevail,” said Devils forward Taylor Hall, who opened the scoring for the Devils, and finished with a goal and two assists.
“We’ve got to let them do all the extra-curricular stuff after the whistle and just play hockey, especially on home ice here. But the intensity is just going to keep ramping up, and that’s how the playoffs are. It’s a lot of fun.”
Was it ever.
Both teams turned in easily the best-played game of the series so far on Monday night in front of the raucous Devils crowd, with the final score not indicative of just how tight it was thanks to the two late empty-netters by Blake Coleman and Ben Lovejoy, whereas the previous 5-2 and 5-3 losses sustained by the Devils in Tampa were.
So, what was the difference?
“I think we just didn’t have any lulls,” Devils captain Andy Greene said. “They scored a couple goals there, but it didn’t affect us. We went right back at them, we pushed back, and that was the big difference.”
Having Cory Schneider on top of his game sure didn’t hurt either. After losing his starting job to Keith Kinkaid for the playoffs, Schneider sure seems to have re-gained it after having a spotless relief outing of Kinkaid in Game 2 and making 34 saves against the potent Lightning offense on Monday night.
“Our goalie stole it for us tonight,” Hall said. “I think if you can simplify it down to one thing, Cory made the saves when we needed it — not that Keith wasn’t, we let him out to dry — but Cory stole it for us tonight, it was great to see.”
There was, however, a sequence in the game where it seemed Schneider might get stolen from the Devils. The 32-yearold appeared to possibly re-aggravate the groin injury that kept him out for five weeks earlier this season when Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh made contact with his left leg while driving towards the net midway through the third period with the game still tied, 2-2.
After making several saves from his rear end and play was eventually stopped, he was tended to by the team’s trainer, but ultimately ended up staying in the game.
“I feel fine, I feel good enough right now to be able to finish the game,” he said.
“I was trying to scramble, but had some trouble recovering. I’m fortunate I was able to stay with (the play), come back to where I was…it was a little chaotic, I couldn’t really find the puck there either. My guys bailed me out big time there.”