New York Rangers' Chris Drury (23) and Erik Christensen Drury scored a goal with his team mates during the first period of the NHL hockey game Saturday, April 9, 2011 at Madison Square Garden in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Captain Chris Drury scored his first goal of the season in a surprise return to the lineup and Ryan McDonagh netted the first of his NHL career during a three-goal second period as the New York Rangers rallied for a 5-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Saturday to remain alive in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
The Rangers earned a win they needed in the regular-season finale in front of an excited, yet nervous crowd at Madison Square Garden. However, New York would be eliminated from postseason contention if Carolina beat Tampa Bay at home Saturday night.
Once the game was in hand, fans began chanting “Let’s Go Lightning,” hoping to get the necessary help.
New York is tied with the Hurricanes for eighth place, but would lose out on the final playoff berth if the teams remained even because of tiebreakers.
With the season on the line, Drury returned to the lineup for the first time in two months and scored on his first shift. Drury had been out since Feb. 3 because of a knee injury that required surgery, missing the previous 27 games. He made an impact right away, scoring 3:14 in to lift the Rangers into a 1-1 tie.
New York, which held a 29-26 edge in shots, also trailed 2-1, but tied it when Wojtek Wolski scored the first of the Rangers’ second-period goals 1:52 into the frame. McDonagh, the rookie defenseman playing in his 40th NHL game, put the Rangers in front at 11:59, and Brandon Prust pushed the lead to 4-2 with 3:54 left.
The Rangers remain the only NHL team not to lose a game this season when leading after two periods (29-0). Henrik Lundqvist kept that intact with a 24-save effort.
Vinny Prospal made it 5-2 with 9:11 to go in the third, bringing more derisive chants of “Maaar-ty” in the direction of Devils goalie Martin Brodeur.
Nick Palmieri and an energized Ilya Kovalchuk staked the Devils to a pair of first-periods they couldn’t sustain. New Jersey hoped to salvage something out of its disappointing season, that resulted in the team’s first playoff absence since 1996, but couldn’t knock out the rival Rangers.
New York fell into this precarious playoff position by losing 3-0 at home on Thursday to the Atlanta Thrashers, another non-playoff team playing out the string. The Rangers finished strong by going 11-4-1 in their final 16 games, but three of those five losses were to non-playoff teams.
Palmieri gave the Devils a 1-0 lead 2:03 into the game when he deflected Kovalchuk’s drive from the left circle past Lundqvist for his ninth goal. Kovalchuk turned a dominating shift into his 31st of the season when he tirelessly worked in the New York zone, weaving in and out of defenders, and finally firing a shot past Lundqvist with 41.8 seconds remaining in the period.
In between, Drury got the Rangers on the board when he came out of the right-wing corner and knocked the puck past Brodeur while diving in front of the net.
It had been a lost season for the 34-year-old center, who had played only 23 games because of a twice-broken finger and the knee injury that knocked him out in February. Drury returned after skating for seven straight days before suiting up.
Drury, who had only four assists this season before his return, replaced Sean Avery in the lineup against New Jersey and also was trying to fill the leadership void created by Ryan Callahan’s season-ending leg injury this week.
Mats Zuccarello got back in after a minor league stint, and Matt Gilroy, who moved up to a forward position in Callahan’s place during Thursday night’s loss to Atlanta, returned to defense in place of Steve Eminger.
The Rangers took a 2-1 lead when Wolski finished a 2-on-1 break with a shot that deflected in off the stick of diving defenseman Henrik Tallinder. McDonagh pushed the Rangers ahead when he took a pass from behind the net from Prospal and scored from the dot in the right circle.
Prust made it a two-goal lead when he came off the bench, crashed the net, and put in a rebound of Brandon Dubinsky’s shot.
NOTES: Neither team had a power play. The only two penalties were assessed simultaneously 5:53 into the second. … Kovalchuk, finishing his first full year with New Jersey, is having his lowest goal-scoring season since he netted 29 during the 2001-02 campaign with Atlanta. … The Rangers’ 44 wins (44-33-5) are tied for sixth most in team history.
IRA PODELL,AP Hockey Writer
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