Rangers Defeated Hated Devils 3-1 at Garden Saturday to Maarr-ttyy Chants

The New York Rangers defeated their hated rivals from across the Hudson River, New Jersey Devils at the Garden last night 3-1. Special thanks go to my Cuz again for getting the tickets and all of us having such a great time. My Second Cuz christened her brand spanking new white road Ranger jersey that Mom got her with a Haagen-Dazs ice cream bar. We sat in the front row VIP seats right next to the Ranger penalty box. In fact the ushers asked me to stop hitting the glass in the 3rd period. My other Cuz and Family sat in Section 65 just to our left. It was amazing to see the speed of Ilya Kovalchuk and Marian Gaborik as they skated right in front of us. Dan Girardi did an excellent job of blanketing Kovalchuk, even with his 8 shots on goal. The Blueshirts put bodies on bodies and that was the difference defensively. Henrik Lundqvist was at his best with 41 saves. He was great with his glove as the Devils kept shooting high on that side. I thought the Devils 14 shots in the 1st period were a lot until they had 20 shots on goal in the 3rd! Excellent games by all Ranger defensemen including Michael Del Zotto, Marc Staal, Wade Redden and Matt Gilroy. Brandon Prust had two fights with Andrew Peters in the 1st period, drawing a 10 minute misconduct on Peters during the second scrap. The Blueshirts penalty kill was excellent, killing off all minors. Marian Gaborik, Ryan Callahan and Chris Drury scored within 2 ½ minutes in the 2nd period which brought the crowd to its feet with accompanied Maarr-ttyy chants. Bryce Salvador had a solid game for the Devils on defense and led the team in ice time. Girardi led the Rangers with almost 19 minutes ice time. It was Devil Patrik Elias’ first game back in three weeks after suffering a concussion and he had a great game playing alongside Kovalchuk. With just over 2 minutes left in the 3rd period Sean Avery got under the skin of Kovalchuk and he dropped his gloves, but Avery did not. They both got double minors for roughing which was a joke. I let Avery and one linesman know that as they were right in front of me. Avery went right up to the linesman after the game to give him an earful. It was a great win for the Rangers in a playoff type atmosphere at the Garden and it was cool having a front row seat to it all. The three stars of the game were Lundqvist, Callahan and Gaborik.