This one might have told you more about the Devils than about the Rangers. And what it told you is that the Devils are no more going away over the second half of the season than they did during the second half of Saturday’s Battle of the Hudson in Newark.
For when it was 3-1 for the Blueshirts at 13:15 of the second period, the Devils refused to yield in a game in which they had been regularly stymied by an Igor Shesterkin who was celebrating the third anniversary of his NHL debut. Instead, they got stronger.
They initiated and carried the play against a Rangers team that didn’t quite go into a shell, but played more conservatively than necessary. There were two goals to tie within 2:04 midway through the third, the first scored on a hellacious power-play one-timer by Jesper Bratt, the next the second of the afternoon and 19th in his past 20 games off a right wing rocket. by the splendid Jack Hughes.
And then it was Damon Severson on a two-on-one at 2:47 to end it. It was 4-3 for New Jersey, 4-3 for a team that had gone 3-8-2 in its past 13 and, with a regulation defeat, would have tumbled behind the Blueshirts into third place in the Metro.
So the Rangers reach the halfway mark at 22-12-7 after going 11-2-2 in their past 15 contests. After all the issues through the first two-plus months, the Blueshirts are just five points off the pace they set last year when it all seemed to go so smoothly following the first couple of weeks.
“We found our way out of our start,” Jacob Trouba said. “We’re more confident now than we were the first 20 games. We’re playing better hockey.”
All true. But the Rangers are also going to be locked in a battle for a playoff spot with the Devils, who finished 47 points behind the Blueshirts a year ago and missed the tournament for the ninth time in 10 years.
You could say that the Devils have come out of nowhere. Jimmy Vesey, the New York winger who gave his team a 1-0 lead in this one after spending last season wearing the New Jersey crest, would beg to differ.
“I could see this coming,” no. 26 told The Post. “We started red-hot last year [7-3-2]and then we ran into injuries and wound up using nine goalies, I think.
“But I knew about their talent. Their progress doesn’t surprise me. With Jack, Nico [Hischier] and Bratt, there are three high-end guys who can play with anyone in the league. Nico maybe doesn’t have the same flash or charisma, but he is a world class 200-foot player.”
The Devils put pucks and bodies to the net throughout a first period in which they were credited by Natural Stat Trick with a 7-1 edge in high danger chances and a 19-9 edge in shots. Shesterkin’s brilliance enabled his team to take a 1-0 lead that became 2-0 early in the second on Julien Gauthier’s go-to-paint goal (what else?).
Hughes cut the lead to 2-1 at 9:24 by intercepting Barclay Goodrow’s bizarre pass back into the zone from across the red line, blasting through the Ben Harpur-Braden Schneider pair and beating Shesterkin from close range.
Chris Kreider’s goal from around the crease at 13:15 culminated a lengthy possession shift that restored the two-goal lead but not in order. The Blueshirts were never able to pound the puck in and go on the forecheck. Were never able to turn the match into a half-court game. The ensuing wide open spaces favored New Jersey.
Any space favors Hughes, the 21-year-old, 2019 first-overall who has matched his season-best of 26 goals that he established last season while limited to 49 games by an early shoulder dislocation and a late knee injury.
“If you’re on against him as his check, you have to try and match his speed,” Vesey said. “You’ve got to be tight. You have to stay up on him. But it’s not easy.
“He’s like a video game. The NHL video game has a turbo setting. That’s what he is. He just turned it on. Suddenly, he hits that switch and he’s on turbo.
“I sat next to him in the room and he’s a really good guy. He had two pretty serious injuries so it wasn’t easy for him,” Vesey said. “I’m happy for him.”
The Rangers would be a happier bunch had they left this game in second place. They had it in their grasp for a while, but got a bit footloose and fancy free while the Devils refused to go away.
Let this be a reminder. Let this be a warning: There is no reason to expect anything different from the Devils the rest of the way.
The race is on.
.