Devils Blank Rangers 4-0 in Game 7 to Advance to Second Round

NEWARK, NJ – Akira Schmid stopped all 31 shots he faced for the New Jersey Devils in Monday evening’s 4-0 shutout win over the New York Rangers in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference First Round at the Prudential Center. It was the first time the Devils won a Stanley Cup Playoff series in more than a decade.

The Devils opened the scoring halfway through the second period when Ondřej Palát stole the puck away from Chris Kreider in the offensive zone. After corralling the puck, he dished a pass under a diving Mika Zibanejad to Michael McLeod who made a backhanded move to deke Igor Shesterkin and into the back of the net. The goal was McLeod’s first since January.

It was only Palat’s second assist of the series and third point, but was it a big one. His reputation and knack of making plays in the playoffs are why the Devils inked him to a long-term contract in the offseason.

“That is just playoff hockey to the tee,” Devils head coach Lindy Ruff said of Palat’s sequence after the game. “To create the turnover then get it to Michael shows you why we have him.”

In the ensuing minutes after game’s first goal the pace of play noticeably picked up with the Rangers threatening on several scoring chances. As he did throughout much of the series since taking over between the pipes, Schmid was able to weather the storm of Rangers shots and maintain the one goal lead.

Then John Marino skated the puck from the red line through the offensive zone and made a similar move on Shesterkin missing wide but grabbed the rebound off the boards and found Tomas Tatar nearby for the score.

“It was an amazing move, I thought for a second he scored but when I saw he didn’t I got into position and he shoveled it to me (in the slot) and it was a great play by him,” Totar recalled of the playmaking ability of Marino. “They did a tremendous job today it wasn’t easy at start but we kept pushing to get the win.”

“We’re going to enjoy tonight and tomorrow we’re going to focus on the next series.”

The Rangers nearly scored in the waning seconds of the second period as the puck beat Schmid but trickled by the net.

Opening the third period, the Devils defense buckled down and prevented the Rangers from getting any good looks.

As the game started to open up with the Rangers taking more chances with the puck, goaltender Igor Shesterkin came out of the crease to challenge a dump in attempt and Devils forward Nico Hischier collided with him. Rangers K’Andre Miller took a two-minute roughing penalty in retaliation and put the Devils on their third powerplay of the game.

Timo Meier took a scary hit from Rangers captain Jacob Trouba while attempting to carry the puck into the offensive zone and did not return with an apparent upper body injury.

After a few minutes of physical play, the game settled down with the Devils defense giving the Rangers very few scoring chances. Schmid handled any ensuing shots with rather ease.

Erik Haula scored his fourth goal of the series on a one-timer from Jack Hughes to all but put the game on ice with 5:33 left.

Jesper Bratt, who was one of the most improved Devils players as the series progressed, was rewarded for his hustle with an empty net goal to close out the game. It was his first career playoff goal.

The series win erased a tough 2-0 series deficit in which the Devils were outscored 10-2 in the first two games on home ice.

"To battle back and play as well as we did in New York to get back in this," added Ruff. “This team has no quit. They give me everything they have – I'm really proud of the group."

The Devils will take on the Carolina Hurricanes next series with action starting on the road on Wednesday evening. They split the regular season series 2-2, but were winners of the last two games.