NEWARK, N.J. — All season long, the Rangers were waiting for this moment. After getting all the way to the Eastern Conference final last season, before running out of gas and eventually bowing out to the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Blueshirts hungered to get back to the playoffs and try to do it again.
At times, it seemed they slogged their way through the regular season, but when they finally got to play their first playoff game in 2023, against the rival Devils Tuesday at Prudential Center, the Rangers were clearly ready.
Goals by Vladimir Tarasenko, Chris Kreider (two, both on the power play) and Ryan Lindgren, plus a more-than-solid performance in goal by Igor Shesterkin, led the Rangers to a 5-1 victory. It gave them a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven, first-round series. Game 2 is Thursday in Newark.
The Rangers won the battle of the special teams, scoring once on the power play — by Kreider — in two attempts, and killing all four power plays the Devils got in the game, allowing just one shot on goal in their four times shorthanded. Shesterkin (27 saves) had his bid for his first career playoff shutout thwarted by Jack Hughes, who scored on a penalty shot with 2:46 left.
Hughes’ goal made it 4-1. Filip Chytil scored into an empty net with 1:58 left to make it 5-1.
Kreider’s goal, which came at 9:30 of the first period, was his 35th career playoff goal, which made him the Rangers’ all-time leader. He passed Rod Gilbert.
After what seemed like weeks and weeks of playing games that didn’t matter in the standings, the Rangers, who finished 47-22-13 (107 points) — good for third place in the Metropolitan Division, five points behind the second-place Devils (52-22-8, 112) — seemed to relish playing their first playoff game. The Blueshirts jumped all over the Devils at the start, despite going down a man when Vincent Trocheck took the game’s first penalty, a tripping call that gave the Devils the game’s first power play 1:15 in.
The Rangers blocked a ton of shots (nine in the first period alone) and killed the penalty without allowing a shot on goal. Not long after it was over, they took the lead on Tarasenko’s 42nd career playoff goal, at 4:58.
The goal seemed to give the Rangers life, and they continued to pepper Devils goalie Vitek Vanecek (18 saves) with shots, despite the fact that they faced a second shorthanded situation when Adam Fox was called for holding Devils forward Jesper Bratt. Then, after a period of sustained pressure by the Rangers, the Devils’ Miles Wood was called for holding Artemi Panarin, giving the Blueshirts their first power play of the game, and Kreider’s goal put them up 2-0.
The play started with a faceoff in the offensive zone, and Kreider, a left-handed shot, took the draw in the right circle. He won it cleanly, back to Panarin, who passed it to Fox, who shot a puck that Kreider deflected in.
The Devils, who had picked up their play in the second half of the first period, came out fired up to start the second, and had the early territorial edge. But the Rangers weathered the storm, with Shesterkin stopping everything. His biggest save of the game came on a shot by Jack Hughes, who capitalized on a turnover by Vincent Trocheck just outside the Rangers’ blue line to win the puck, and then sped around defenseman Niko Mikkola to get a shot off.
But Shesterkin (15 saves in the first two periods) held his ground and swallowed the puck in his stomach, with 7:25 remaining. For Hughes, who led the Devils in scoring with 43 goals and a franchise-record 99 points in the regular season, it was one of only three shots on goal he had, as the Rangers did a good job keeping him contained.
The Rangers appeared to score on their second power play, with 3:52 remaining, when Alexis Lafrenière deflected a high shot from Jacob Trouba past Vanecek. The play was ruled a goal, but it was overturned when video review determined Lafrenière had hit the puck with a high stick.
However, just 49 seconds later, the Rangers had their 3-0 lead, when Lindgren drove down into the left circle, caught a pass from his defense partner, Fox, and lifted shot over Vanecek and up into the top corner for his third career playoff goal.
