J.T. Miller continued his recent strong play by scoring a pair of goals Tuesday night at the Prudential Center, but it wasn’t enough as the Rangers let a 2-1 lead dissolve into a 3-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils in the teams’ first game since the All Star break.
Miller scored his 14th and 15th goals of the season, giving him six in his last five games and seven in his last seven. Twice he gave New York the lead only to see the Devils answer back and tie the score.
Cory Schneider stopped 31 of 33 shots for the Devils, who have now won five of their last six games. Henrik Lundqvist finished with 22 saves for the Rangers who are 0-1-1 against New Jersey so far this season.
The Rangers and Devils had entered the third period tied 1-1, but they proceeded to trade goals roughly a minute apart early on to forge a 2-2 deadlock. Miller drilled a one-timer from the lower right circle past Schneider off a Keith Yandle feed at 2:06; but New Jersey’s Joseph Blandisi beat Lundqvist with a left-wing snap shot after breezing untouched into the Rangers zone at 3:13.
The visitors fell behind for the first time all evening when they surrendered their second power play goal of the contest at 11:14 of the third period. Devils defenseman David Schlemko beat Lundqvist from right wing after a pass slithered through the slot.
Schlemko’s goal came shortly after NewYork’s Ryan McDonagh shot the puck over the net on a shorthanded breakaway. Minutes after Schlemko’s score McDonagh’s bad luck continued when his power play blast struck the post.
While the Rangers largely controlled play at even strength through the first two periods of play, it was the Devils who held a distinct advantage in special teams play; and as a result the two teams reached the second intermission tied 1-1.
The Rangers opened the scoring at 13:31 of the first period as Miller finished a 2-on-1 rush with Derick Brassard for his first goal of the night. The scoring play originated all the way back in New York’s end of the ice where defenseman Kevin Klein blocked a shot and Jesper Fast chased the loose puck down and neatly chipped it off the wall and out to center ice where Brassard picked it up and took off with Miller.
That goal was one of no less than seven Grade A scoring chances at even strength the Rangers had in the first period, yet the only one that found the back of the net. That is because Schneider was simply stellar between the pipes for the Devils, coming off his first-ever All Star Game appearance this past weekend.
Schneider snuffed out prime scoring chances for Brassard, Miller, Chris Kreider, Dan Girardi and McDonagh–the last two in rapid-fire succession late in the period. Nearly all came after the hard-working Rangers had forced the Devils into giveaways, but Schneider proved to be New Jersey’s insurance policy.
The Devils pulled even early in the second period by scoring a power play goal on their lone man-up opportunity in the first two periods. Derek Stepan took a hooking minor with 5.8 seconds to play in the first and Lundqvist bailed his teammates out with a pair of huge saves on Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac back-to-back just 40 seconds into the middle period. However former Blueshirt Lee Stempniak cashed in on a power play rebound at 1:34 of the second to tie the score at 1-1.
New Jersey proceeded to blank New York on a pair of power plays later in the period, making the Rangers 0-for-3 on the night, to further win the special teams battle. The Rangers have scored just twice on the power play over their last 38 opportunities dating to December 28.
The Devils then cashed in on their second power play of the night with 8:46 remaining in regulation to grab their first lead of the game.
Already playing without the injured Rick Nash–who missed his third straight game with a bone bruise in his left leg–the Rangers had a few scares in their return to action Tuesday night. Within the first three minutes of the first period both Fast and Marc Staal–who was inadvertently drilled on the foot by a Dan Boyle slap shot–were dinged up and then 8:15 into the second Daniel Paille was hit high and hard by New Jersey’s Seth Helgeson who was penalized as Paille had to have his nose packed by the training staff.
Klein was kayoed from the game after being drilled into the boards by New Jersey’s Reid Boucher with 3:02 remaining in regulation.
