*Photo from All About the Jersey*
New York leads series 2-1
Big games need big plays. Jack Hughes scored, Dougie Hamilton scored the game winning goal, and the New Jersey Devils defeated the New York Rangers with a 2-1 overtime victory on Saturday night in Manhattan.
Looking to avoid falling behind 3-0 in the series, the Devils made plenty of lineup changes and gutted out a road win. The road team in this series is 0-3 through 3 games. Hamilton had a goal and an assist for the Devils, while Jesper Bratt finished with two assists.
One of the lineup changes made by the Devils was inserting rookie Akira Schmid in goal over the previous starter Vitek Vanecek. The move paid off, as Schmid got the win by stopping all but one of the 36 shots he saw from the Devils, which was good for a stellar .972 save percentage.
Schmid said after the game that "It's always tough coming into a situation like this, but you just treat it like any other game, I guess. That's kind of how I am; that's just how I'm built. The guys did a great job helping me out, blocking shots, which makes my life easier."
After a scoreless first period, Chris Kreider got the Rangers the 1-0 lead in the second period. He scored his 5th goal of the playoffs, assisted by Mika Zibanejad and Patrick Kane. On the power play 10:37 into the period, Hughes provided the equalizer for the Devils, making it a 1-1 game with Bratt and Hamilton assisting.
The game went scoreless in regulation after that, forcing overtime. 11:36 into the extra frame, Hamilton struck for the Devils. His first goal of the playoffs was enough to give the Devils the win in overtime, assisted by Bratt and Nico Hischier to get the job done.
Hamilton said of his goal in OT that "It started out with a good flip out, and I tried to get up in the rush, and obviously it was a great play by Bratt to find me. I kind of thought he was going to give it to me a little earlier, and then turned and ended up in a better spot. I think there were a couple of bodies in front, so I was just trying to be patient when I got the puck and saw a little spot to shoot at, and luckily I did."
Starting for the Rangers opposite Schmid was Igor Shesterkin, who got tagged with the loss despite a good performance. Shesterkin turned aside 26 out of the 28 shots on goal the Devils had, recording a .929 save percentage in the home defeat.
New York head coach Gerard Gallant said of the loss that "They did a good job adjusting to our power play tonight and our execution wasn't good tonight, and that was the biggest difference. The Devils played really well. They skated well and played a hard game. I thought both teams played well. We tried to get a little cute at times. Schmid made some key saves. Both goalies were excellent."
Up next, game 4 of the series is on Monday night in Manhattan. The Devils will look to win and tie the series 2-2, while the Rangers will try to take a commanding 3-1 series lead on home ice.
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