Devils Defeat Rangers 4-2 at Garden Thursday

The hated rivals from across the Hudson New Jersey Devils defeated the New York Rangers at the Garden last night. I ate dinner and attended the game with a three friends and two younger fans. The Rangers had very little energy in the 1st period. The Devils controlled the puck and tempo of the game. John Tortorella is mixing up the lines a bit to get something going. Avery played left wing on the first line with Prospal and Marian Gaborik. Zach Parise scored the first goal for the Devils at the 6:11 in the 1st period. Nicklas Bergfors scored the second for the Devils at the 15:10. The 1st intermission wasn’t fun to sit through. The 2nd period the Rangers had a lot more energy and scored twice to tie the game at 2-2. The Blueshirts had 13 shots vs. 7 in the 1st period. I do have to say David Clarkson, whom I can’t stand, is getting much better as a hockey player. Wow, I just complemented a hated NJ Devil! Marian Gaborik scored a power play goal at 1:47 in the 2nd period to get Rangers on the board. It was a nice tip-in in front of Brodeur. He's a monster! Ales Kotalik scored at 14:25 in the 2nd to tie the game on a breakaway. Kotalik is getting more ice time and he deserves it. Zubrus broke the tie at 7:51 in the 3rd period to give the Devils the 3-2 lead. That goal was totally lucky and quite the nightmare to watch as it dribbled into the net. Zubrus camped out in the low slot for deflection. Parise scored an empty net goal to ice it. Marc Staal and Dan Girardi weren’t all that hot. Staal made two lazy plays with a poke check and got burned twice on my count. The fight of the night was between Sean Avery and Mike Mottau. What was Mottau the dope thinking? They linesman let them fight since Avery has the large bullseye on his back. Clarkson also took liberties with Avery during the game. The refs let them play. The Rangers only took 1 minor penalty. Henrik Lundqvist stopped 21 of 24 shots. We saw Vic Hadfield coming of the Garden last night after the game. That brought back memories. The three stars of the game were Parise, Kotalik and Zubrus.